If Things Were Different: The Sorcerer’s Stone
by krazy-potter13
Summary: What if Harry left the Dursley’s behind? What if he grew up far from Privet Drive?What if he wasn’t a Gryffindor? What if he had different friends? What if he wasn’t the golden boy that they wanted him to be? AU first year. NOT slash. RR
1. Different Surroundings

**If Things Were Different: The Sorcerer's Stone **

**Chapter One: Different Surroundings**

**Summary:** What if Harry left the Dursleys behind? What if he grew up far from Privet Drive? What if he wasn't a Gryffindor? What if he had different friends? What if he wasn't the golden boy that they wanted him to be? AU first year. NOT slash. **R/R**

**A/N** I know that its been done before, but hopefully mine will be different. The plot is mine and it is intended to be original. However, keep in mind that there are thousands of fics out there, so don't be offended if you run into a small similarity or two. Also,remember that this is just thestart of the series, so there may be some **similarites** with the books,however as time goes on these will be come less and **less frequent**.I very much hope that all of you READ and REVIEW this story and give it a chance! Thank you.

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing except the plot and perhaps a couple original characters that I see the need to introduce. So don't sue, unless you want all...$11.50 that is in my wallet.

**A/N pt. 2: **Since I started this fic over 2 years ago and I've only recently came back to it, I've decided to go back and start fixing many spelling and grammatical errors that I made when I first started writing it. Later on I may go back over the story and make more major revisions (nothing that would drastically change the story line).. I just thought I would let you know.

A young boy with jet black hair and crooked glasses sat crying behind a well-trimmed begonia at 4 Privet Drive. He was hiding from his obese cousin's gang, who were having fun playing their favorite game. Harry Hunting.

The seven year old Harry Potter wiped a tear away from his blacking eye and held in a sniffle as he heard his cousin's friend, Piers Polkiss yell out, "There he is, in your mum's flower bed!" Harry knew he would have to run, he was outnumbered six to one - not to mention any one of the other boys were at least twice Harry's size. The scrawny boy moved to stand, but was caught off guard when his left leg cramped up, sending him sprawling back to the ground.

Harry's unexpected fall gave Dudley's gang great delight as they all burst into very repulsive sounding laughter. "Look, scar-face can't even stand right! Maybe I'll tell dad that the bastard has gotten into his gin!" Dudley called out before once again collapsing in laughter, no doubt at his own comment.

'I hate them. I hate them. I wanna go away. Anywhere but here. Anywhere!' Harry couldn't take it anymore. He felt something deep inside snap and energy like he had never experienced before began pushing its way to the surface. It felt like he might explode.

Dudley's gang all went silent as they stared at the boy as he slowly began to levitate off the ground. "ANYWHERE! I HATE YOU! I WANT TO LEAVE!" The other boys began to back off as the boy was now levitating at least a foot off of the ground. And then in less then a blink of an eye there was a very loud POP! and he was gone.

Suddenly Dudley came back to his senses and did the only thing he could think of: he screamed.

Several hundred miles away, in a large, magnificent castle Minerva McGonagall rushed into the office of an old wizard.  
"Albus! Albus he's gone!"

"Yes Minerva, I know."

"What will we do, we have to find him."

"We will do no such thing."

"Albus Dumbledore, how can you say such a thing. We must send out search parties!"

"We will do no such thing. The boy will be found Minerva, but only when he is ready.

3 Years Later - Daytona Beach, Florida, United States

Beep. Beep. Beep...Crash. Harry Potter lazily opened his eyes and cursed as he realized that he had just smashed his alarm clock. '_Needed a new one anyway. That one was losing time_' He thought as he stood up and made his way towards his shower.

That's right, his shower. Even after three years Harry still found it hard to believe that he was able to con his way into renting his own apartment, despite his age.

Flashback

Harry stared around in awe. Mere seconds ago he had been being humiliated by his cousin's gang, and now he was on a beach in the blistering hot June sun. It didn't take him long to realize he was far from Privet Drive, and a good listen in to the conversations of the other people on the beach told him he must be somewhere in the U.S. judging by the accents.

He looked around and soon spotted many apartment buildings and large stores not far from the beach. He was beginning to gain attention as he was fully clothed in jeans and a large shirt. Not exactly you typical beach apparel. So he quickly headed towards what appeared to be the city, where he would no doubt draw less attention.

Several hours later the young boy found himself signing papers for a small apartment in an old, run down building. He had told the landlord that he and his mom had just moved in from England and that she had told him to take care of paying for the apartment as she was already out looking for work. The landlord was rather old and senile and quickly bought the story. Harry quickly paid the man with some money he had recently pick pocketed while walking the streets and headed up to his new home, hardly daring to believe his luck.

End Flashback

Harry stepped out of the shower and tossed on some stylish black shorts and a dark blue shirt with 'Rage Against the Machine' printed in white letters on it. He sub-consciencely tousled his dark hair, whose tips were dyed blue, giving it a stylish messy-punk look that many people worked on for many a long minute to perfect.

Harry glanced at his image in the mirror and decided that he was quite mature looking for an eleven year old. For today was his eleventh birthday. He had lean muscles and a good tan, which he had acquired during his job as a helper on a construction team. For the most part he just did the odd jobs that the skilled workers didn't wish to waste their time with, like caring planks back and forth or cutting boards to the right length.

The team that he had got on to was made up of older guys who had taken Harry under their wing when they discovered his situation. They paid him under the table so he wouldn't be found out, and even signed him up for school so that people at his apartment complex wouldn't get suspicious.

Harry was rather proud of himself. After all, how many other kids out there could manage to do well in school while also hold a job and live on their own, renting their own apartment and buying all their own food.

He grabbed several knives off of a small, beat up desk next to his bed and stashed them in various hiding places on his body, you could never be too safe after all. He had just finished putting in his contacts, which he had gotten shortly after his arrival to Florida, and was searching his compact refrigerator for a drink when he heard the mail slot click.

He gulped down his glass of milk before heading over and grabbing his mail.

"Lets see..." He muttered to himself as he shuffled through his mail. "Junk...junk...bill...junk...bill..ju.. what's this?" He asked himself aloud as he came across a thick, yellow, parchment-like envelope. He turned it around and examined the official looking seal, a large H in the center, surrounded by an eagle, a badger, a snake, and a lion. "Hmm...that's strange." He muttered before flipping it back around and examining the address, written in an emerald green ink.

_Harry Potter _

_Apartment 76 Ocean Paradise Apartments _

_South Windward Street _

_Daytona Beach_

He slowly sat down on his small bed and broke the seal with his index finger. He pulled out a couple folded up pieces of parchment and read

_HOGWARTS SCHOOL  
of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY _

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore  
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,Supreme Mugwamp, International Cofed. of Wizards)

Dear Mr. Potter,  
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed list of all nexessary books and equipment.

Term Begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.  
Yours sincerley,

Minerva McGonagall

Minerva McGonagall  
Deputy Headmistress

Harry gaped at the letter. What did all this mean? Witchcraft and Wizardry? Order of Merlin? Was this some kind of sick joke? Await your owl?

"...no later than July 31. Well, today's the 31st, so I don't guess I can reply, which is what owl means I suppose"

"Ah, but that is where you are wrong, all you must do to reply is turn around."

Harry gave a great yelp of surprise and jumped up, already with two knives in his hands. He had not heard the door open, but standing there in his apartment was a very elderly looking man in quite strange apparel, flanked by a very severe looking women and greasy haired man, both dressed similarly.

"Who the hell are you?" Asked a very confused Harry in a strangely calm voice.

"I, Harry, am Albus Dumbledore, and I am here to bring you home."

**A/N**: There you go, the beginning. I hope you enjoyed, but if you didn't that's cool... you should keep reading anyway, it will get better. **R/R **please.


	2. Conversations

**Chapter Two: Conversations **

Summary: What if Harry left the Dursleys' behind? What if he grew up far from Privet Drive? What if he wasn't a Gryffindor? What if he had different friends? What if he wasn't the golden boy that they wanted him to be? AU first year. NOT slash. **R/R**

**A/N** I didn't intend to post this chapter yet, but here it is anyway. READ and REVIEW this story and give it a chance! Thank you.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything.

"I am home." The young Harry said, gripping the two knives a little more tightly in his hands. Thoughts began to race through his mind. What if he had been found out? Perhaps these strange intruders were here to take him to the local orphanage, or maybe a foster home. Or was all this just a joke set up by the guys down at the construction site? No, that's not right, they wouldn't make a joke on his behalf.

Harry was quickly trying to form an escape plan in his mind when something clicked.

Flashback

Young Harry was drifting in and out of that space between sleep and consciousness. He had just had the strangest dream of riding on a flying motorcycle. He slowly opened one eye to see a couple of vaguely familiar faces looking down at him. They didn't know he was awake.

One of them, a women, pointed a long boney finger at his forehead and whispered, "Is that where ---?"

The old man, most familiar of the lot whisperd, "Yes. He'll have that scar forever?"

Harry must have fallen back to sleep, because the next thing he remembered was the old man standing over him announcing, "Well, that's that. We have no business staying here. We may as well go and join the celebrations

The next thing Harry knew, he was waking up to the hellish shrieks of his Aunt as she went to set out the milk bottles.

End Flashback

Fury built up inside Harry. His eyes flashed dangerously.

"You...You're the one that brought me to _Them_, aren't you? You bastard. I'm not going back! I left all that behind me! Leave me alone!" And with that he ran, straight past the trio of strangely dressed people, who attempted to grab him as he fled. He raced down the hallway and down flight after flight of steps.

"Ah, Albus, I believe he has interpreted your words in the wrong way."

"Yes Severus, the boy was not how I expected him to be."

"Perhaps I shall cut him off Albus?"

"No Minerva, allow me. I believe we may have a hostile Slytherin on our hands." And with a loud POP the potions master was gone.

Harry was bolting towards the exit door in the lobby when, with a loud CRACK, the greasy haired man was directly in front of him. It was too late to stop and soon two sets of limbs were tangled up on the floor.

"Alas, the great Harry Potter is not nearly as graceful as the world would like to believe."

"What the fu..." Harry mumbled as he quickly untangled himself and once again attempted to escape.

"I see you're not afraid to run from danger, unlike your foolish father, he never did know when to stop playing the hero."

Harry stopped dead in his tracks and slowly turned around, reaching for a knife he had stashed in his belt.

"What the FUCK do you know about my father!"

"Just that he was a popular, stupid git."

"Take that back!" the dark haired youth said in a dangerously calm voice, raising the knife, preparing to throw it.

"I don't take back the truth Potter. Expelliarmus." The knife flew into the man's hand. "Now you are going to come with me, whether you take the easy way," the man offered out his hand to the boy, "Or the hard way." He said, raising the wand slightly in a threatening way.

Take me, not Harry! Avada Kedavra! Green light. Darkness.

Harry grimaced, the wooden stick in the man's hand reminded him of what he assumed was his mother's death. His mother...his father. "How did you know my father?"

The man sighed, deciding perhaps he should try and gain the boys trust. "We attended the same school."  
Harry gulped. He knew nothing of his parents. The Dursleys had always locked him up in the cupboard if he asked. He slightly lowered the knife in his hand (he had drawn another from his sleeve).

"What school?"

"Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Your parents were wizards Harry, just like me, and just like you."

"What do you mean by wizard? I'm not a wizard." Harry said in an almost pleading voice, but some part of him knew that he was fighting a losing battle.

"By wizard I mean you are a male human with the ability to do magic. And you definitely fit the criteria. After all, no squib could defeat The Da..." he paused, perhaps know was not the time to release that bit of information. "Let me ask you Potter, has anything...strange... ever happened to you or around you? Particularly when you were quite angry or distressed?"

"No... well..." He thought back over the years. There was that time he had ended up on the school roof when Dudley's gang was chasing him...and the time when he disappeared and ended up in Florida...or the time when he broke his arm at work, and it was fine the next day...or when his teacher's hair turned pink after Harry had received a 61 on a math quiz...

"...yeah. Yeah a few things have happened."  
"Course they have. And that's why we're here. We want to take you back to Hogwarts so you can become a real wizard." The greasy haired man once again offered his hand out to Harry.

"And why should I trust you? Hell, I don't even know you name!"

"You don't have to trust me, you just have to come with me. And it's Professor Severus Snape."

Before Harry could protest two loud CRACKs broke the silence as the elderly man and the strict women appeared on either side of Snape.

"Ah, Severus, I see you have done well. And now, unless I am very much mistaken young Mister Potter, you are feeling quite confused?" Questioned the wise old wizard known as Dumbledore.

"Confusion is a sign of helplessness." Harry replied, his guard all the way back up.

"That it may be Harry, but a feeling of helplessness is simply the body's reaction to confusion, so, as you see, it is a cycle. Lemon drop?" The headmaster reached in his pocket for one of the candies but paused as the dark haired boy's eyes narrowed. "Harry, I believe we started off on the wrong foot. I do not intend to bring you back to your relatives. In hindsight that was one of my less brilliant ideas. I do however, wish that you would return to where you belong. Perhaps we could discuss it over tea?"

"Tea? How about coffee?" he paused before adding, "In my apartment." A curious Harry responded. The three professors exchanged a glance and Dumbledore nodded.

"Very well then."

Several hours later Harry sat quietly thinking in his apartment. It all seemed so absurd, yet, strangely, it also felt right. He glanced up at his visitors, particularly the man sitting back, relaxed in Harry's comfy armchair. It was a rather odd sight, to see such an old, important looking figure to be so relaxed, but Albus Dumbledore was not your normal 'important figure.' No the eccentric old wizard was far form normal, by any criteria.

One of the things that made him particularly strange was his patience. His two colleagues were sitting very unrelaxed on Harry's beat up couch, waiting for the boy's response.

Over the past three hours the three professors had been explaining to Harry everything from what, exactly, magic was, to what Hogwarts was, to what it was like at Hogwarts, to why he needed to attend. In fact, over his fifth cup of coffee, Dumbledore had only just moments before explained to Harry of his past, of how he had defeated Lord Voldemort.

And there Harry sat, thoughtfully rubbing his chin, letting all these waves of information sink in, while the three professors sat there waiting for some sort of reaction.

"So, you're telling me that I'm some sort of hero in this 'wizarding world' because some evil cat named Lord Volie-something tried to kill me when I was a little and I survived, and I like banished him or something. And now you dudes show up wanting to take me off to Britain so I can train up on my skills?"

"That pretty much sums it up."

"And if I do decide to come, I'm gonna need like a wand and stuff, won't I? And books too?"

"We can arrange a trip to Diagon Alley to get your supplies."

Silence.

"I do have a job, but dosen't the school cost a pretty penny to attend? I'm not exactly rich you know."

"Ah yes, there is an annual fee, however you need not worry about expenses. I believe your parents left you more than one vault at Gringotts, a wizard bank."

"Alright, I'll give it a shot."

"Very well then. If there are no more questions then I believe that we will be off. I will arrange for you to go for your supplies tomorrow, perhaps Professor Snape could pick you up at noon?"  
"Right."

"Oh, and if you wouldn't mind, could I use the loo before we're off?"

Harry looked at Dumbledore as if he was a bit crazy. "The loo?...oh yeah, the bathroom. Second door on your right as you head to the door."

"Thank you."

**A/N**: you've made it this far, why not keep reading. In the next chapter Harry gets his first taste of the magical world in Diagon Alley, stay tuned.


	3. A Day on the Town

If Things Were Different: The Sorcerer's Stone  
  
Chapter Three: A Day on the Town  
  
Summary: What if Harry left the Dursley's behind? What if he grew up far from Privet Drive? What if he wasn't a Gryffindor? What if he had different friends? What if he wasn't the golden boy that they wanted him to be? AU first year. NOT slash. R/R  
  
A/N hi. Read. Enjoy. Review.  
  
Disclaimer: If I had a million dollars I'd be rich. But not nearly as rich as J.K.R, who owns the Harry Potter universe (not me).  
  
Tap. Tap. Tap.  
  
Pause.  
  
Tap. Tap. Tap.  
  
Pause.  
  
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!  
  
Pause.  
  
"Damn, I'm coming, I'm coming." Harry peered through the peep hole in his apartment door before unlocking several various locks and swinging it open.  
  
"Are all you Brits so impatient, or just you?" Harry asked the greasy haired vistor in annoyance as he attempted to smooth the wrinkles out of his t-shirt.  
  
"You do remeber that I will be your Professor this year, Mr. Potter?" The potions master stated, making it clear that he didn't expect an answer.  
  
"Yeah, whatev. Let me grab some cash then we can be out." Harry mumbled offhandaly as he fished around in an unorganized drawer for a momemnt before pulling out a handful of $20 bills. He put them up to his lips and gave them a quick kiss muttering, "There she is." He stuffed the money in his pocket and turned expectantly to Snape, waiting for instructions.  
  
"You do know you have vaults full of gold at Gringotts, don't you?... Grab this, its a portkey." He said withdrawing a tattered old dictionary from his pocket and extending towards Harry.  
  
"Yeah, I figured that I'd live off that stuff..."  
  
"5...4..."  
  
"I'm gonna use that," he glanced at his pocket, "for spending money..."  
  
"2...1..."  
  
POP. Harry felt a tug behind his naval as the world sped around him. Several seconds latter he found himself collapsing onto the floor in what appeared to be an old pub. Once he had stood up, dusted himself off, and glared at Snape for not giving him fair warning; Harry took a look around at his surroundings.  
  
It was, in fact, a tiny, grubby-looking pub that was quite overdue for a good ol' scrubbing. It was quite dark, shabby, and an intense smell of a mixture between alcohol and fried eggs drifted through the air. A few old women wore sitting in a corner having a smoke and sipping on glasses of sherry. A small, buff man whom reminded Harry strangely of a Dwarf was iddily chatting with the bartender, who was quite bald and toothless. Harry saw a women eating a strange substance which reminded Harry of a picture he had seen of a hag.  
  
As soon as Harry and the professor had 'popped' in the low buzz and chatter suitable for such a place stopped.  
  
"Ah, Snape. The usual?" The old bartender questioned, already reaching for a bottle of firewisky.  
  
"No thank you," Snape shriveld up his nose at the old bartneder, "I'm just taking young Mr. Potter to get his supplies."  
  
"Potter. Blimey, is that...no it can't be..." Tom the bartender was at loss for words.  
  
"Why yes...there's the scar!" The bartender, along with the rest of the pub's inhabitants had frozen in shock. A small man in a top hat broke the silence.  
  
"Delighted, Mr. Potter, such an honor. Im Diggle, Dedaulus Diggle." This led to a mad rush as the rest of the witches and wizards made a mad dash to shake the boy's hand.  
  
"An honor to meet you Mr. Potter."  
  
"Can't believe I'm finally meeting you Mr. Potter..."  
  
"Doris Crockford, Mr. Potter..."  
  
"Welcome back, welcome back..."  
  
The commotion was beginging to die down when Snape called out, in his cold voice. "Quirrell! Is that you? What are you doing?"  
  
A small, pale young man with a purple turban around his head stopped in mid- step on his way to the door. Harry felt a sharp pain pass through his scar as the man turned around. Harry felt an instant dislike and discomfort around the man, and subconsciously his hand flicked towards one of his many hidden knives.  
  
"J-just p-p-passing through Professor S-Snape."  
  
"I see. Mr. Potter, Professor Quirrell is the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor." He paused and glared at the small man, who turned even paler. "Don't you wish to say hello to your future pupil, Professor?"  
  
"Of course. P-pleasure to meet you P-Potter." Harry grimily nodded to indicate he heard him. He definatley didn't like this man.  
  
It wasn't for another five minutes before Snape and Harry had fought thier way out the backdoor into a small, walled courtyard containg nothing but a trash cans and a few weeds. Harry glanced up at his professor questionaly.  
  
Snape, however, was paying Harry little attention and was counting bricks on the wall above the trash can. "Three up...two across...Right." He tapped a brick in the wall three times with the tip of his wand.  
  
The brick he had touched quickly began to shake. After a second a hole appeared in the brick and quickly began to expand until Harry was standing in front of a large archway which revealed cibbeled street, twisting and turning out of sight.  
  
"Diagon Alley, Harry."  
  
Harry gaped in amazement and looked around, his usual nonchalent demeanor being replaced with awe. A stack of cauldrens teaterd outside a near shop window. Caulrons - All Sizes - Self-Stirring - Collapsible, said a sign hanging over them.  
  
"First requirment for potion making, we'll get you one after Gringotts." Snape muttered and pushed Harry along. Harry continued to look around in amazement at the shops, the people, the whole atmosphere.  
  
He glanced around at shop signs: Eeylops Owl Emporium - Tawny, Screech, Barn, Brown, and Snowy; Quaility Quidditch Supplies (Nimbus Two Thousand In Stock!); Madame Malkin's Robes for All Occasions (Hogwarts' Leading Robe Supplier for over 850 Years!)....etc.  
  
Finally they reached a tall, snowy white building that towered well over the little shops. Standing outside the buildings bronze doors were two --  
  
"Goblins, nasty little things, always starting up rebellions..." Snape whisperd in Harry's ear as he usherd past the funny looking creatures and through the doors, only to be faced with another set of doors, silver this time. On them was engraved:  
  
~ Enter, stranger, but take heed Of what awaits the sin of greed, For those who take, but do not earn, Must pay most dearly in their turn. So if you seek beneath our floors A treasure that was never yours, Thief, you have been warned, beware Of finding more than treasure there. ~  
  
"That's creepy." Harry thought aloud.  
  
"Yes, and eerily true."  
  
Another pari of goblins bowed them through the silver doors and into a goblin infested marble hall. Harry and Snape made their way up to one of the goblins behind a counter.  
  
"I'm here to make a withdrawl from the safe one Mr. Harry J. Potter. Here's the key." Professor Snape was obviously expereinced with speaking to goblins.  
  
"That seems to be in order, anything else."  
  
"Yeah, hold up a sec." Harry muttered, withdrawing the stack of bills from his pocket. "Could I get these exchanged." He said, shoving the pile of money onto the counter.  
  
"Certainley. Exchange rate is quite well righ now. American Muggle to Wizard is running at nearly $5 to a galleon.(A/N... I have no idea if this is even close.) So this would total out to..." The goblin paused, counting off the bills. "40 galleons, 8 Sickles, and 4 Knuts."  
  
The goblin handed Harry over a heavy stack of wizarding money, which Harry tied to his belt.  
  
"Will that be all?" The goblin asked.  
  
"Actually, I have a letter to deliver from Dumbledore. It concerns You- Know-What in vault 713." Snape handed an official looking letter over to the goblin, who examined it closely.  
  
"Very well, Griphook! These two gentlemen need a ride." Griphook was yet another goblin that led them to a door leading out of the hall.  
  
Harry had a strong desire to ask Snape what the You-Know-What in vault 713 was, but thought better of it and asked about wizard money.  
  
"Gold coins are Galleons," Snape explained, "Seventeen silver Sickles to a Galleon and twenty-nine bronze Knuts to a Sickle. It's simple enough really."  
  
They passed through another door and Harry was surprised when more marble didn't meet them. Instead there was a whole maze of twisting passages connected by thin railway tracks on the floor. Griphook whistled and a small cart came hurtling towards them. They climbed in and the cart hurtled off down countless passageways, sometimes taking seemingly random turns.  
  
The cart finally came to a screeching halt next to a small door. Griphook unlocked the door and a lot of green smoke billowed out. Harry's jaw dropped. Inside were mounds upon mounds of gold, sliver, and bronze.  
  
Snape gazed at it in a mixture of jealusy and loathing. Harry, on the other hand, all but dived into the mounds and stuffed as much of the precious coins into the sack provided as he could. Inside this vault was more money then he would make if he stayed with the construction team until he was 100 years old... and it was all his.  
  
"That's enough Potter." Snape snapped in a surpisinly cold voice, considering how nice he had been to Harry so far that day. Harry shrugged and leaped back into the small cart and they were soon off once again.  
  
When they reached vault 713 Harry, who had always been keen to detail, realized that there was no keyhole.  
  
"Stand back," Griphook ordered. He then stroked the door with his long, knobbly index finger and the door (somewhat to Harry's surpise) seemed to melt away. Harry was sure that this vault had to be holding something extremely important. He was quite disapointed when it's only contents was a small grubby package wrapped in brown paper lying on the floor. Snape reached down, picked it up and stuffed it deep into his robes.  
  
When he saw Harry's gaze he glared and commanded, "Repeat what you saw to a soul and your time at Hogwarts will be a living hell. That I promise you."  
  
Grimly, Harry nodded.  
  
****  
  
After Gringotts Snape had told Harry where to make his purchases and had then dissapeard, leaving Harry to fend for himself. Harry had gone on to purchase his supplies with not much worth mentioning, that is, until he had made his way to Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C.  
  
At Ollivanders Harry had waved wand after pointless wand with no reaction. That is until:  
  
"...I wonder, now -- yes, why not..." the old, wide/pale eyed Mr. Ollivander had muttered, withdrawing a wand from a dusty shelf near the back of the shop, "--unusual combination -- holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple."  
  
Harry took the wand doubtfully in his hand. He suddleny fet warmth spread through his body. He gave the wand a flick. The wand shot out a steam of blue and green sparks, flying through the air.  
  
Snape, who had entered the shop without Harry's notice applauded and Mr. Ollivander cried out, "Bravo! Very good. Well, well, well.. how curious...how curious..."  
  
After the relief of getting a wand hand passed, Harry's curiosity got the better of him. "What's so curious?"  
  
Mr. Ollivander fixed Harry with a pale stare.  
  
"I remember every wand I've ever sold, Mr. Potter. Every single wand. It so happens that the phoenix whose tail feather is in your wand, gave another feather --- just one other. It is very curious indeed that you should be destined for this wand when its brother --- why, its brother gave you that scar."  
  
Harry swallowed. Snape glared at Harry, as if he might sprout a snake-like face and morph into the Dark Lord.  
  
"Yes, thirteen-and-a-half inches. Yew. Curious indeed how these things happen. The wand chooses the wizarsd, remember...I think we must expect great things from you, Mr. Potter...After all, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things --- terrible, yes, but great."  
  
Snape fidgeted. Harry being quite uncomfortable with this news paid the seven Galleons for his wand and left the shop.  
  
Once out on the street Snape shoved what appeared to be two pieces of trash into Harry's hands.  
  
"These are portkeys. This one will take you back to your apartment in a couple of minutes. This one will transfer you to Kings Cross on September 1st at 10:30 AM, British time. To get to the train walk through the barrier seperating platforms 9 and 10. Good day, Mr. Potter." Snape said all this in one voice and disapperated away with a loud POP.  
  
A/N Please READ and REVIEW... thank you. Also, I used a couple quotes and/or descriptions from chapter 5 of the Sorcerer's Stone in this chapter...don't sue. 


	4. Back to London

If Things Were Different: The Sorcerer's Stone  
  
Chapter Four: Back to London  
  
Summary: What if Harry left the Dursley's behind? What if he grew up far from Privet Drive? What if he wasn't a Gryffindor? What if he had different friends? What if he wasn't the golden boy that they wanted him to be? AU first year. NOT slash. R/R  
  
A/N Hey everyone thanks for the support so far. I'm surprised those of you who reviewd seemed to like the story so far. Please continue to read and review. Once again R/R Special thanks to all my reviewers s far, these include:  
  
Destruxion, Layce74, Byproduct of Evil, and scholcomp25....thanks again for the support!  
  
Disclaimer: If I owned any of this (besided the plot/ Original characters) then I would would be one rich ass 16 year old... sucks that I don't own it.  
  
Harry sat idly fingering the piece of "trash" that Snape had left in his possession, it was an old, broken, portable CD player, smashed in the middle. It was a portkey.  
  
Harry yawned and made sure he had a firm hold of his trunk, it was 5:28 in the morning in Flordia, that made it nearly 10:30 in London. The portkey was set to go off in about two minutes.  
  
Harry thought back over the last month. He had had no more contact with the magical world since his trip to Diagon Alley, but this bothered him less than one might think. Much of his time was spent letting everything sink in. Its not every week that you discover that your a famous wizard hero, travel to a hidden part of London, and learn that the majority of the next seven years of your life will be spent in a foriegn, magical boarding school.  
  
Once Harry had accepted this sudden change in his life, much of his free time was spent pouring over his textbooks, eager to not be completey ignorant of the world he had become a part of. He wasn't studying to get a head start on his work, no. By no means did he considered himself to be turning geeky. On the contrary, he simply wanted to be as up-to-scale with his future classmates as possible. Afterall, he had thought, they all probaly grew up in large famlies full of magic.  
  
Studying the text books, was not the only way Harry was preparing for his stay in Britain. Much of his free time was also spent packing.  
  
Luckily for him, he had decided on purchasing a large trunk with seven different compartments, opened with seven separate keys. It had cost a pretty galleon, sure, but Harry decided that it was worth it.  
  
In the first compartment he had stashed all his normal clothes along with his Hogwarts robes. The second compartment was filled full of books ranging from The Lord of the Rings (his favorite books), to A Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1, to 999 Nasty Hexes and Most Potent Potions (both of which he had purchased in Diagon Alley, even though they weren't on the book list).  
  
The third compartment was filled with various items, ranging from CDs, to posters of his favorite bands, to his electric gutiar and amp. Harry was, obviously, very much a 'music person.' It was one of the few ways that he had found that could release some of the stress that was built up from raising himself, whether it was by throwing on a CD or playing his guitar, it always helped.  
  
Harry had first picked up a guitar when he was about nine years old. He had been hanging out at Andrew's house (one of the younger men on the construction team) and had found an old beat up guitar. He had picked up the desperatly out-of-tune guitar and started messing around on it, and it wasn't long before it became obvious that he was a natural. Before long Harry had bought a guitar of his own, and had been playing ever since.  
  
The fourth compartment was one of Harry's favorite. It was charmed to keep a cool temperature, so that food could be kept in it. Harry fully took advantage of this, as he didn't know what type of food wizards ate. He stuffed the compartment full of junk food, ranging from cases of soft drinks, to boxes of pizza, choclate bars and other such things that he thought "necessary."  
  
The last three storage compartments (one of which was a little room), were left empty for future use.  
  
Harry glanced down at his watch and yawned, 5:29 AM, he had about thity seconds before the portkey activated. He reached into the pocket of his red hoodie, which had the name 'Jimi Hendrix' written in big black letters over a silhouette of a man playing a guitar on its front, and fingered his wand - the brother wand of Lord Voldemort's.  
  
He had about 10 seconds left before he would pop off to London. He reached out and grabbed a hold of his trunk and counted down the seconds. With a relatively familiar pull at his naval, Harry disappeared from his Daytona Beach apartment.  
  
His eyes were shut when he landed, so the first thing he noticed was not where he was, but what it smelled like. And it stank. Like trash. Trash that was about a week overdue being taken out.  
  
He slowly opened his eyes, and understood where the smell was coming from. He was in a dumpster, across the street from Kings Cross.  
  
"Fucking Snape." He muttered, figuring that only he would arrange a portkey to land you in a dumpster.  
  
Harry peeped his head out of the dumpster to see if anyone was looking. When he thought it was clear he heaved his trunk out of the dumpster and jumped out after it. When he had dusted himself off the best he could, he glanced around.  
  
An old couple was standing several yards away, gaping at Harry, no doubt thinking he had been digging through the trash on purpose. Harry flashed the old couple a fake smile, and flipped them off. He was already quite irrated with his start for the day, and he didn't need two old geasers feeling pity for him.  
  
He made his way across the street and into the train station. He quickly found Platforms 9 and 10, but, not exactly trusting Snape after the dumpster incident, Harry found a dark corner that had a good view of the barrier. He quickly noticed that, every couple of minutes a group of people would walk up and walk straight through the wall, just as Snape had said.  
  
He glanced down at his watch. 10:45. He saw a large, red-headed family that practically screamed "Magical!" heading towards the barrier. 'Better now then never,' Harry thought. Not wanting to get stuck behind this large family Harry headed straight over towards the barrier.  
  
Not being exactly sure how to go about going through the barrier, Harry casually leaned up against it, and was quite surprised when he fell straight through, onto a whole new platform, packed with magic folk.  
  
He glanced up in awe at the scarlet steam engine, straight in front of him. He glanced at it's name, "The Hogwarts Express." Smoke from the engine drifted over the heads of the crowd as a loud whistle sounded and a voice called out.  
  
"Ten minutes! Ten minutes left to board!" As many of the students began to say their final farewells to their families Harry decided that he had better go find a good seat. He found an empty compartment near the end of the train and first placed the owl he had bought in Diagon Alley on inside the compartment (I'll call it Hedwig, even though I know the chances of him deciding on that name under different circumstatnces are slim). He then began attempting to heave and shove his trunk up the steps, he may have been well built, especially for his age, but getting a trunk up steps was not an easy procedure.  
  
"Need a hand." It was one of the members of the red-headed family he had passed through the barrier in front of. Standing next to him could only be the identical twin.  
  
"That'd be tight." Harry said as the twins each grabbed hold of the trunk.  
  
"Tight?...You must be.."  
  
"..an American." The other twin finished, interupting his twin.  
  
"Yeah, but I used to live over here." Harry replied, remembering from his time in England that not everyone liked Americans. They finished tucking the trunk into a corner of a compartment.  
  
"Oh... Sorry that we..."  
  
"Forgot to introduce..."  
  
"Ourselves..."  
  
"I'm Fred and this is..."  
  
"George..."  
  
"But you'd be better off calling..."  
  
"Us Gred and..."  
  
"Forge..." The two twins said this all very fast, and Harry suspected that they might have rehersed it previously.  
  
"Alright. Gred, Forge," The twins looked elated that he used these names, "Nice to meet you. I'm Harry."  
  
"Blimey...you aren't Harry..."  
  
"Potter, are you?... Yes, there's..."  
  
"The scar!"  
  
"Yeah, well, that's me." Harry mumbled, hoping that he didn't get this reaction from everyone in the wizarding world, but it seemed that this was the case. Soon the twins mother called them, and Harry sat down in relative peace, running his fingers through his black, blue-streaked, hair, making it even more untidy.  
  
Soon a knock came at the compartment door, and Harry called the stranger in. It was a short, sandy-haired boy that could be nothing but a first year.  
  
"Can I...um...sit in here." Harry nodded, deciding that he ought to try and make some friends.  
  
"Terry Boot." The boy said extending his hand, which Harry shook.  
  
"Harry Potter."  
  
"Really?" Harry lifted up his black and blue bangs to reveal his scar.  
  
"Wicked."  
  
"I guess." Harry replied somewhat coldly, already tiring of the attention. Terry seemed to sense this and quickly changed the subject.  
  
"So, what house do you think you'll be in?"  
  
Harry pondered this question for a moment. He had read of the houses in the Hogwarts section of his 'A History of Magic' book, plus Snape had informed him he would make a good Slytherin.  
  
"Ravenclaw or Slytherin. I'm not 'noble' enough to be a Gryffindor, or 'trusting' enough to be a Hufflepuff."  
  
"That is what I like to hear. Except you need to replace 'noble' with 'stupid' and 'trusting' with 'daft.'" A new voice had joined the conversation. Both Harry and Terry glanced at the door to see an aristocratic looking blonde boy with a pointy nose standing next to a strangaley looking boy with dark eyes and and black hair. These two boys were flanked by two very studpid, very large looking boys.  
  
"I'm Draco Malfoy, and this is..."  
  
"Blise Zabini."  
  
Draco Malfoy then continued, motioning to the large boys behind him saying, "Stupid and Stupider here deserve no name, but if you like you can refer to them as Crabbe and Goyle." He then paused, for what must have been a dramatic affect. "They've been saying up and down the train that Harry Potter is in this compartment. As your a Boot then that means that..."  
  
"Harry Potter." Harry said, lifting up his bangs for confirmation.  
  
Draco smirked, if outward appearances had any say in the matter then, he thought, he and Harry would soon by the reigning Co-Princes of Slytherin. He offered out his hand. "Pleased to meet you, Harry. Maybe we could sit with you."  
  
Harry observed Malfoy's hand for a second, before reaching out and grabbing it. Just at this moment the door burst open and their stood a red-headed boy, no doubt Gred and Forge's younger brother. When he saw Harry and Draco shaking hands his eyes widend with disbelief and let out a shout.  
  
A/N Haha. Left you with a tiny little cliff hanger. Hope your enjoying reading this fic half as much as I am writing it. Any comments/ suggetstions will be greatley appreciated WHEN, not if, you R/R. Thanks. 


	5. The Train Ride

If Things Were Different: The Sorcerer's Stone  
  
Chapter Five: The Train Ride  
  
Summary: What if Harry left the Dursley's behind? What if he grew up far from Privet Drive? What if he wasn't a Gryffindor? What if he had different friends? What if he wasn't the golden boy that they wanted him to be? AU first year. NOT slash. R/R  
  
A/N Here's a short little chapter to temporarily satisify you. R/R Thanks to: Devonny Rose: Wow. I can't believe it's one of your favorites. Here's the next chapter, hope you like it. Byproduct of Evil: Yeah, Harry and Draco are gonna be friends. You'll have to wait tow see what house Harry's in though.  
  
meinien: Glad you find it intresting, here's the update.  
  
For everyone else, shame on you! You didn't review! lol. R/R  
  
Disclaimer: I'm not rich. I would be if I owned the HP universe (or, for that matter, anything else you might recognize)  
  
***  
  
Harry observed Malfoy's hand for a second, before reaching out and grabbing it. Just at this moment the door burst open and their stood a red-headed boy, no doubt Gred and Forge's younger brother. When he saw Harry and Draco shaking hands his eyes widend with disbelief and let out a shout.  
  
***  
  
"NO! Harry Potter! You can't! He's evil!...You can be my friend, I'm Ron Weasley, better than any Malfoy." The red head spat out in desperation as he witnessed the two shaking hands.  
  
Harry glanced wearily at the intruder, raised one eyebrow, and asked, "He's evil? What makes you draw such conclusions?"  
  
"He...he's...well. He comes from a family of Slytherins! And they're all evil!"  
  
Harry smirked and, one eyebrow still raised, questioned, "And what makes you think that I, the great Boy-Who-Lived, won't be in Slytherin? The sorting, afterall, has yet to take place... Though, no doubt, I'm sure a nice seat is reserved for you..." here Hary paused, looking the boy up and down for a long moment, before continuing, "...at the Hufflepuff table."  
  
This comment recieved roars of laughter from the other members of the compartment. Harry however, was keeping one eye on the red head, whose face was rapidly changing from pink, to red, to purple, to white in fury.  
  
"TRAITOR!" Ron screamed, and, with one stupid decison, dived at Harry. Harry simply stepped aside and Ron went tumbling to the ground, much to Harry's amusement. Ron quickly jumped back to his feet and began throwing wild punches in Harry's general direction.  
  
Harry quickly got fed up with Ron's antics and, in one swift movement, grabbed a knife from his sleave, grabbed Ron, and pinned him to the wall with his free hand. He placed the knife up against the boy's stomach and stared deep into the the red haired boys eyes, as if searching for something.  
  
In a dangerously soft, cold voice Harry leaned up next to Ron's ear, so that only he could hear what Harry had to say.  
  
"You know Ron, noone really knows how I survived Voldemort, do they? Who knows, maybe there just can't be two Dark Lords at the same time? Maybe it was my turn" He then put the knife away and shoved him towards the door, saying louder, so that everyone could hear, "Just a little something to think about, eh?"  
  
Once Ron had left Harry sank down into his seat and ran a hand through his hair. Malfoy was smirking, nearly smiling, as if his birthday and Christmas had both just came eleven months early.  
  
"That was bloody wicked." Terry proclaimed. "I never really did like that one, a bit too rash for my likings."  
  
The Two Twits mumbled something resembling words of agreement, although it may have just been their stomachs growling. Harry looked up at them in annoyance. Malfoy seemed to notice this, for he quickly ordered them to go sit with a girl named Pansy. They obediantly obeyed.  
  
"I've never seen a Weasle so freaked out." Malfoy thought aloud, expressing his glee.  
  
Blaise, who had been relativley quiet up to this point asked, in a rather distant voice, "Yeah, what'd you say to 'em."  
  
"Nothing really. Just a bunch of bullshit." Harry mumbled, gazing out the window. He obviously didn't want to talk about it. There was a long uncomfortable silence as everyone looked at Harry, who continued to gaze out the window.  
  
The silence was broken by Terry calling out, in an unnaturally cheery voice, "So, let's talk Quidditch!"  
  
Harry, never having seen a match before, quickly got bored with the Quidditch discussion. The raven haired wizard hero soon got up and rummaged through his trunk and after several moments withdrew a small black book and a muggle ink pen. He sat gazing out the window, occassionally jotting something down, half the time only to go back and scratch out what he had wrote.  
  
Meanwhile, Draco Malfoy also began to tire of the discussion, and raised his cold, gray eyes to observe "The-Boy-Who-Lived." In all honesty he was not at all as Draco had imagined him. Going by the history books and rare comment from his father, Malfoy had expected Harry to be some tall, brave, and noble Gryffindor whose ego was bigger than all of Britian.  
  
Instead a dark, mysterious, street-wise young man sat in front of him. A boy who was forced by Magcial and Muggle world alike to live the life of a man, fending for himself for nearly half his life. A boy that would stop at nothing to get where he was going and take no crap along the way. Yeah, Malfoy was pretty sure that The-Boy-Who-Lived was a one hundred percent pure Slytherin, from head to toe and finger tip to finger tip.  
  
Yeah, Malfoy laughed to himself, looks like the wizarding world might not get the golden-boy hero they thought they had.  
  
Harry suddenly got a look of intense frustration on his face as he scratched something out in his black book.  
  
"What's that your righting?" Draco asked, curisously.  
  
"Nothing." Draco shrugged. Before long there was a clattering outside in the corridor and a smiling, dimpled lady soon slid the compartment door back. "Anything off the cart dears?"  
  
The four boys in the compartment gatherd around the small cart, picking and chooseing differnt types of odd treats. Harry, who was quite unexperienced with magical candy, helped himself to a little of everything.  
  
Harry quickly made his way to the choclate frogs.  
  
"What are these?" He asked the memebers of the compartment in general as he struggled to open it up.  
  
"Choclate frogs. Not real of course, but they have one or two jumps, so be careful." Terry informed, but it was too late. Harry had managed to open up the choclate frog package and, somewhat to his surprise the little frog took a giant leap out of the box and straight onto the window. With one more jump it was flying out the train.  
  
"Damn."  
  
"Rotten luck, really. What card did you get anyways...I'm missing Dorthelemu." Terry, the most talkative of the group said as he took a large bite off a Licorice Wand.  
  
Harry picked up a card left in the chocalte frog box and skimmed over it. "Dumbledore...greatest wizard...modern time...defeated Grindelwald...discovery of twelve uses of dragon's blood...work on alcemy...with Nicolas Flamel...blah blah blah."  
  
"Brilliant but mad. Common combination. Look at the muggle's Einstien." Blaise muttered, flipping through his potions book while nibbling on the edges of a Cauldron Cake.  
  
"Bloody muggles, never liked them." Malfoy muttered, ripping open a package of of Every Flavor Beans.  
  
"They're not that bad. I've lived with 'em most of my life." Harry said, looking up at Draco.  
  
"Didn't say they're bad. Said I didn't like 'em. Ugh. Spinach." He replied, nibbling on an green Every Flavor Bean.  
  
"My mum likes spinach, tried to grow it in the garden this year. Didn't go well... That's why I like Wands, always know what they're gonna taste like." Terry muttered, taking a nibble on his Licorice Wand and warily eyeing Draco package of Bertie Bott's.  
  
"Our garden didn't go well this year. Bloody gnomes got to it." Blaise said, face still hidden behind his potions book.  
  
"Speaking of blood, are their really vampires?" Harry asked, curiously.  
  
"Course they're are. Big ol' group of them on the loose in Paris right now." Draco said, carefully examining a brown bean.  
  
"My brother visited Paris over the summer. I'd watch out for that one Draco, it might be crap." Terry warned, looking up at the brown bean Draco was examining.  
  
And so it was that the four spent much of the train ride to Hogwarts, discussing several topics a minute. In fact, the only times they were interrupted from their pointless, random discussion was when a bushy haired, buck-toothed girl came around in search of a boy's toad, and when a voice came over the train, informing them they would reach Hogwarts in ten minutes.  
  
The four had just finished when the train came to a screaching halt at Hogsmeade station. They quickly joined the large throng of students making a rush off the train onto the platform. They weren't on the platform for long when the heard a loud voice beckoning them over.  
  
"Fir' years! Firs' years over here!"  
  
A/N and there's chapter 5. originally this was only going to be about half of it, but I wanted to get it up tonight since I'll be busy for the next few days and wouldn't be able to finish the second half until around Sunday (which is when the next update will probably be, maybe Saturday) Anyways, please R/R 


	6. The Sorting

If Things Were Different: The Sorcerer's Stone  
  
Chapter Six: The Sorting  
  
Summary:What if Harry left the Dursley's behind? What if he grew up far from Privet Drive? What if he wasn't a Gryffindor? What if he had different friends? What if he wasn't the golden boy that they wanted him to be? AU first year. NOT slash. R/R  
  
A/N Sorry about the long delay. My internet was down for like a week, then I was busy for school-work and studying for my PSATs. But have no fear, for the next chapter is finnaly here. (hey, that rhymed!) R/R! Thanks to:  
  
Serry - I'm glad you seem to like this, and sorry about the mixup with chapter 1. Oh, and the whole Harry-as-Dark-Lord thing you won't have to worry about... I think.  
  
Devonny Rose - I'm glad you aren't a Ron lover, I've been liking him less and less since Prizoner of Azkaban. Also glad you like how i'm portraying Harry. Anyways, here's the next update, sorry about the delay.  
  
Byproduct of Evil - Here's the next chapter, sorry about the wait.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own any of this, except a bit of the plot and/or new characters. Also, I may use some descriptions/quotes from the book. Don't sue.  
  
*** The four had just finished getting dressed when the train came to a screaching halt at Hogsmeade station. They quickly joined the large throng of students making a rush off the train onto the platform. They weren't on the platform for long when the heard a loud voice beckoning them over.  
  
"Fir' years! Firs' years over here!"  
  
***  
  
The four boys made their way over to the large, errr, man, that was beckoning over. "C'mon, follow me -- any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!"  
  
Slipping and stumbling they followed the giant-like, hairy man down a steep and narrow path. It was extremley dark and Harry thought they must be going through a forest. There wasn't a whole lot of talking going on, with the exception of Harry and Draco who were expressing their discontent of the uneven path.  
  
"It's no wonder Weasley's not complaining about this pitiful path, it's probably a step up from the walkways at his house." Draco called out loudly.  
  
"Shove it, Malfoy!" Ron called out through the darkness.  
  
"I'd watch who you're telling to shove it, Weasley, remember our conversation earlier?" Harry called out in an emotionless voice.  
  
"Quiet back there. Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' 'Ogwarts in a sec," The large man called over his shoulder. Just then the path took a sharp cure and opened onto a great, large, black lake. On the far side, hight atop a mountain stood a breath-taking castle, its windows sparkling like stars in the night sky.  
  
"No more'n four to a boat!" The man's voice brought their attention to a small fleet of little row boats sitting on the shore. Harry was followed by Terry, Draco, and Blaise into one of the boats.  
  
Soon all the boats were gliding across the smooth lake, piloting themsleves. They neared a high cliff, which the castle stood atop of. "Head's down!" The overly-large man called.  
  
Harry ducked his head only seconds before the boats glided through some ivy which hid an opening in the face of the cliff. They came to an undergound harbor and unloaded from the boats, making their way up a flight of steps, coming out on the Hogwarts grounds. They made their way up to a huge oak, front door, which the large man walked up to and knocked on three times.  
  
Almost instantly the door opened up to reveal the women from Harry's apartment who he recognized as the strict Professor McGonagall.  
  
"The fir's years, Professor."  
  
"Thank you, I will take them from here, Hagrid."  
  
McGonagall led the students through the huge entrance hall, past a set of doors, which Harry could hear thousands of voices behind. Professor McGonagall led them on though, into a small, empty chamber lit by several flaming torches.  
  
Once the first years had crowded into the chamber McGonagall gave a quick, straight-to-the-point speech on Hogwarts, the houses, and the coming sorting. Harry tuned out most of it, already having heard the basics earlier, back at his apartment, however he was quite delighted when McGonagall all but told Ron that he needed to clean up, before she headed out throught the door.  
  
"How exactly do they sort us?" A sandy haired boy questioned.  
  
"I heard its a test."  
  
"I heard we have to fight a troll."  
  
"Nonsense." Malfoy stated to the troll statment, which Weasley had made.  
  
"What makes you so sure, Malfoy?" The red-head spit.  
  
"Nothing really. Just my father, if you must know, is on the school's governor board, and they would never approve something that dangerous."  
  
"Oh, well..." Ron muttered at a loss of words.  
  
Suddenly something happend which nearly made Harry lose his compsure, which he had kept admiraly so far. Several people behind him, however, had no such luck as they let out screams.  
  
About twenty ghosts, nearly transparent and eeirly white had just floated through the wall, talking to eachother, not even noticing the first years. They seemed to be having some sort of heated argument.  
  
"Forgive and forget, I say, we ought to give him a second chance --"  
  
"My dear Friar, haven't we give Peeves enough 'second chances' already? He gives us all a bad name, and he's not even really one of us! -- I say, what are you lot doing here?"  
  
A ghost wearing what could only be fifteenth-century attire had noticed the first years.  
  
Nobody answered, instead vouching to stare nevously around at one-another.  
  
"New students! No doubt about to be sorted, I suppose?" The ghost known as the Fat Friar called out. Harry, along with a few others, slowly nodded.  
  
"Hope to see you in Hufflepuff!" The Friar called out.  
  
"Nay, why not Gryffindor?" Another called out.  
  
"Move along now," a sharp voice called and Harry spun around to see McGonagall, "The Sorting Ceremony's about to start, so form a line."  
  
Harry attemted to gulp down the nervous lump that had appeared in his throat and got in the line behind Malfoy. They soon were off, out of the chamber, through the pair of double doors, and into the Great Hall.  
  
Harry had never imagined such a starnge and beautiful room. It was lit by thousands of candles, hovering over four long tables where hundreds and hundreds of students sat. These tables were laid with glittering gold plates, bowls and goblets. At the top of the hall was another long table, where the teachers sat, and this is where Professor McGonagall led them, so they came to a halt, facing the other students. To avoid all the pairs of staring eyes, Harry glanced upward, only to be awestruck by a velvety black sky, dotted with stars (He heard the bushy-haired girl inform someone that it was bewtiched to look like the sky outside). Harry, however, found it almost hard to believe that there was a ceiling there at all.  
  
Harry gazed back down and saw Professor McGonagall placing a four-legged stool in front of the first years, and on the stool she placed a battered old hat, which seemed to be the focus of everyone's attention.  
  
There were a few seconds of complete silence, until a rip near the brim of the hat opened wide and the hat began to sing:  
  
"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty, But don't judge on what you see, I'll eat myself if you can find A smarter hat than me. You can keep your bowlers black, Your top hats sleek and tall, For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat And I can cap them all. There's noting hidden in your head The Sorting Hat can't see, So try me on and I will tell you Where you ought to be. You might belong in Gryffindor, Where dwell the brave at heart, Their daring, nerve, and chivalry Set Gryffindors apart; You might belong in Hufflepuff, Where they are just and loyal, Those patient Hufflepuffs are true And unafraid of toil; Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw, If you've a ready mind, Where those of wit and learning, Will always find their kind; Or perhaps in Slytherin You'll make you're real friends, Those cunning folk use any means To achieve their ends. So put me on! Don't be afraid! And don't get in a flap! You're in safe hands (though I have none) For I'm a Thinking Cap!"  
  
The hall burst into applause as the hat finished its song and Harry breathed a sigh of relief as Malfoy voiced Harry's thoughts.  
  
"So all we have to do is try on a bloody hat! I wasn't really sure, I only said that to Weasle to make him look bad."  
  
Harry smirked weakliy, he knew Malfoy hadn't been half as confident as he had let on earlier. Professor McGonagall's voice broke Harry's thoughts as she called out, "When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted....Abbott, Hannah!"  
  
A pink-face girl with pigtails stumbled out of line, put on the hat, and sat down.  
  
"HUFFLEPUFF!" The hat cried out. The table on the right cheered and Hannah went to sit at it.  
  
"Bones, Susan" A tall red-headed girl put the hat on.  
  
"HUFFLEPUFF!"  
  
"Boot, Terry!" Terry nervously stepped out of line. He caught Harry's eye as he made his way to the stool and Harry gave him an encouraging look. Terry placed the hat on his head and sat on the stool for nearly three minutes before the hat called out, "RAVENCLAW!"  
  
"Brocklehurst, Mandy" followed Terry to Ravenclaw and then "Brown, Lavender" became the first Gryffindor.  
  
Next a large, ugly girl named "Bulstrode, Millicent" became a Slytherin.  
  
Harry observed as several more students went off to one of the four houses, noting that the buck-toothed Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom (the boy who had lost his toad) both managed to get into Gryffindor, much to Weasley's dipleasure.  
  
A short, brown haired boy with dark eyes by the name of "MacDougal, Morag" went to Slytherin followed by:  
  
"Malfoy, Draco!" Draco turned to Harry and said in a sure voice, "See you in a minute." Harry nodded and Draco made his way up to the stool. The hat had barley touched his head when it shouted, "SLYTHERIN!"  
  
Two more boys, by the names of "Moon" and "Nott" followed Draco to Slytherin, as well as a pug-faced girl named Pansy Parkinson. Next were a pair of identical twins named Padma and Parvati Patil, who went to Ravenclaw and Gryffindor, respectivley.  
  
Next was a girl who caught Harry's attention. Her name was Sally-Anne Perks, but she didn't look like what you'd expect a "Sally-Anne" to look like. She was tall for her age, with pale, almost pearly-white skin and long, flowing black hair, and even from a distance, Harry could tell that she had brilliant blue eyes. Harry also took notice that she had several black braclets on her arms and several assorted necklaces were visible around her neck.  
  
She made her way out to the stool and carefully placed the hat on her head. The hat was silent for several minutes before it called out "SLYTHERIN." For some reason Harry was relieved with where she was sorted.  
  
"Potter, Harry!"  
  
As Harry stepped forward towards the hat, whispers broke out all across the hall.  
  
"Potter, did they say?"  
  
"The Harry Potter ?"  
  
The last thing Harry saw before the hat obscured his vision was a hall full of people craning to get a good look at him.  
  
"Hmm," a small voiced whispered in his ear. " Curious."  
  
"Not sure if I like the sound of that." Harry thought to himself.  
  
"Yes, I see why you say that.. However, on to buisness. You have quite a curious mind.... Hmm... Gryffindor would do you good, its where all the other Potter's have gone. Hmm..brilliant mind as well, Perhaps Ravenclaw? Ooooh, whats this. Yes, I see, a thirst to prove yourself... and my, my what talent!. You'd do well in Slytherin."  
  
"Sounds good to me." Harry thought to himself. "Just not Gryffindor."  
  
"Very well then. If you're sure -- better be SLYTHERIN!"  
  
A/N: Once again, sorry about the long delay. I can't promoise the next chapter will be up this week, but I'll try. Oh, and I have a question, does anyone know why ff.net isn't allowing me to upload this as a .htm file so that I can have bold/italics and stuff? 


	7. Welcome to Slytherin

**If Things Were Different: The Sorcerer's Stone **

Chapter Seven: Welcome to Slytherin 

Summary:What if Harry left the Dursley's behind? What if he grew up far from Privet Drive?What if he wasn't a Gryffindor? What if he had different friends? What if he wasn't the golden boy that they wanted him to be? AU first year. NOT slash. R/R 

**A/N**So here's the next chapter, I wrote it a little bit rushed so sorry if it dissapoints you. R/R! **Thanks to:**

_SlytherinDamian - Wow. I'm still surprised that people like this fic so much... glad you aren't one of those Ron lovers... cause there is still a lot of anit-Ron to go in this fic. I understand the your apprehensiveness what with the 7 yr old thing, but hey, at least you kept reading and ended up liking it. Thanks for the html advise. I was attempting to do it with wordpad instead of notepad, I should have know better. Thanks. _

knot2be - Happy you find it intresting, hope you continue to like it. And its bound to have some similarites to some other fics out there, afterall, great minds work alike (well, I try to have great mind.). 

PheonixManl - Yeah, I hate goody two shooes too. Which is one reason why I'm making Harry out as I am. hope you continue to enjoy the story. 

Byproduct of Evil - Thanks for continuing to review, I need them for inspiration. And Slytherin is the only house my-Harry could ever be in. He'll get even more Slytherinish as this fic goes on..for better or worse. 

Mystical Witch - Yeah, it is gonna get good. mwahahaha. And for the Hermione issue... time will tell. 

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of this, except a bit of the plot and/or new characters. Also, I may use some descriptions/quotes from the book. Don't sue. 

***** 

Silence. Thats what greeted Harry as he removed the hat from his head. Could the great Harry Potter really be a Slytherin? Weren't all Slytherin's evil? 

Harry set the hat slowly back down on the stool and began walking over towards the Slytherin table. That's when the whispers broke back out. All across the hall students where leaning over and muttering in their friends ears, giving Harry dirty looks and undiscreatley pointing long, accusing fingers at him. 

As Harry continued his walk towards the Slytherin table a tall, pale-faced Slytherin with a Prefect badge posted on his billowing robes stood up and began clapping. Soon the rest of Slytherins had joined in, standing up and clapping Harry on his back as he made his way towards Malfoy. The first-year boy whom Harry recognized as Nott went as far as to stand up on the table doing some sort of crazy tap dance sreaming "We got Potter! We got Potter!" 

As Harry took his seat next to Malfoy he was relieved to see that the Ravenclaw table gave him a polite applause. He also noticed that the Weasley Twins seemed to be taking his sorting lightly, as they were standing atop the Gryffindor table doing a slighlty more elaborated tap dance singing "They got Potter! They got Potter!" Which caused them to recieve many death glares from their fellow housemates. 

Soon Dumbledore was forced to call for the students attention so that the sorting could continue. There were only a few people left and Dean Thomas and Ron Weasley (glaring at Harry) soon became the last Gryffindors and Lisa Turpin became a Ravenclaw. 

"Zabinin, Blaise!" Was the last student to be called up to be sorted and most of the hall had stopped paying attention to the sorting by now. Most of the Slytherins had begun to form little groups around the table, all leaning in a muttering silently to eachother and occasionally sending dark glances at members of other houses. 

"What's the deal with all the little...goups?" Harry questioned Draco, motioning to the different groups of Slytherins at the table as Blaise walked nonchalantley up to the stool. 

"Slytherins have always formed their seperate little groups. It's in our blood, you know, to watch eachother's backs. Dosen't always work that way though, obviously." 

"Oh, I see. Hope Blasie is in Slytherin." Harry said, motioning to the sorting hat where Blaise had been sitting for several minutes. 

"He will be, there's no way he won't be in -" 

"SLYTHERIN!" 

"Told you." Draco mumbled as he motioned Blaise over to a seat across from Harry. 

Blaise made his way to the seat and sat down. "Had to blackmail the bloody hat. Wanted to but me with the Ravenclaws." 

"Anyone that blackmails the sorting hat deserves to be in Slytherin." The a girl said from a seat next to Blaise. Harry recognized her as Sally-Anne. "Names Sally-Anne, but to call me that is a deathwish. Call me Audrey." 

Harry raised a questioning eyebrow. "How do you get Audrey out of Sally-Anne." 

Audrey turned to Harry, "It's my middle name, if you must know." 

"Don't have to be all bitchy." 

"Shh, Dumbledore's standing up." Draco said, motioning to the head table where Dumbledore was standing, beaming down at all the students with his arms opened wide. 

"Welcome. Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin out banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddmint! Tweak!...Thank you." 

"As I said, brilliant but mad." Blaise said, shaking his head. 

"Ahh, food." Draco said. Harry looked down and, to his utter amazement, the golden plates that had seconds before been very empty were now overflowing with all the foods that he could ever imagine. He looked up and was surprised when his new friends didn't seem the least impressed with the sudden appearence of the food. 

It wasn't only the way in which the food arrived that had surpised Harry, it was also the shear amount of food. Having raised himself for the last several years, Harry had never once gone hungry, but he had never had enough that he could eat more than he needed. 

"Hey Potter, close your mouth, your starting to look like a Weasley." Audrey said, and then pointed at Ron over at the Gryffindor table, who seemed to be having some sort of inner conflict. Draco looked up and shouted out in glee when he saw Ron's face: 

"Hey Weasley! Bet your golbet's worth more than what your family makes a year!" Ron glanced up and shot a furious glare at Draco and turned beat red back to his housemates. 

"Damn, he's too easy to piss of." Blaise mumbled and turned back to his plate and placed two large pork chops on it. 

"Yeah, but it's funny as hell." Draco replied. 

Harry tossed a juicy steak onto his plate and started to cut it up. "Mmm..Can't stand people like him who jump to conclusions." 

"Hey, who's that." Blaise said, looking down the table where a horrible looking ghost sat, staring straight at Harry with with blank eyes to match his gaunt face and blood covered eyes. 

"Don't know, but he seems to have an intrest in me." Harry said and looked away, hiding his slight fear of the ghost with an emotionless expression plasterd on his face as he stuffed his mouth with mashed potatoes. 

"The Bloody Baron. He's the Slytherin gost." Draco seemed to know a lot about Hogwarts, Harry figured his dad must have told him. 

"How'd he get all...bloody." Audrey asked with a digusted look on her face. Draco shrugged. A few moments later he looked up at Harry. 

"You know, I'm surprised you got such a warm welcome in Slytherin. What with it being the house You-Know-Who was in and everything. 

"Yeah, we might all have to be watching your back this year. Probably a lot dumbasses in this house still support him." Blaise voiced in his silent, cold voice. 

"Yeah, we can be the PPA. Potter Protection Agency." Audrey joked. 

"I'm serious." Blaise responded. 

"And somber. You need to lighten up." Audrey piped. 

"Go screw yourself. It's not like I asked for your opinion." 

"Shut up. Both of you." Harry mutterd darkly. What if there really were some people in his house that might be out for him, for doing something he couldn't even remember? _Guess I'll just have to watch my back then, won't I?_ He thought to himself. 

"What's on you mind." Draco had been watching Harry again and had noticed his sudden change in demeanor. 

"Nothing. Just tired, what with the time difference and everything." 

"Guess your in luck then, Dumbledore is standing back up." The hall fell silent once again. 

"Ahem -- just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have few start-of-term notices to give you 

"First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to rememeber that as well." Dumbledore glanced at the twins. 

"I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors." A seventh year a few seats down snorted at this. 

"Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone intrested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch. 

"And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor is out of bounds to everyone who does not wsih to die a very painful death." 

Harry frowned, Dumbledore was serious. "That's strange." 

"Yeah, we'll have to check it out." Audrey whisperd. Draco, Harry, and Blaise spun around and looked at her as if she had lost her mind. "What?" She asked, innocently. 

Next Dumbledore announced that they would sing the school song. He flicked his wand and words poured out of it. Harry rolled his eyes but sung the song nevertheless. When the song was over the Slytherin first years got in a group (Draco crammed himself between Harry and Blaise to avoid a girl named Pansy) and followed a yellow-toothed Slytherin Prefect down through many seemingly random corridors down into what could only be the dungeons. 

Harry figured that the prefect tried to get them confuesed because it was nearly a half hour of climbing through portraits and doors hidden behind suits of armour later that they came to a patch of bare damp stone wall. 

_"Basilisk"_ The prefect said to the blank wall. 

"That's the password, I'd remember it if I were you. But don't worry, it's liable to change without you knowing." The prefect let out a sadistic laugh as the wall opened up. 

The first years walked into what Harry thought must be the Slytherin common room. It was a long, low undergound room with rough stone walls and a ceiling which had long greenish lamps hanging from it, dangaling from large chains. A fire was crackaling under an elaborate mantalipiece and Harry thought he spotted a large bloodstain on one of the walls. 

"Boys dorms to right, girls to left." The prefect informed them and then headed over to one of the plumb green armchairs next to the fire. 

"Well isn't this place cheery?" Audrey piped in a sarcastic voice. 

"Might as well get used to it." Harry said and headed down a steep staricase to the right. The first year dorm was the last one, at the very bottom of the long staricase. It was a dark, damp and chilly circular room with seven beds situated around it and a doorway leading off to a bathroom. 

Harry found his trunk placed next to the bed farthest from the dorms entrance and closest to the bathroom. He stripped down to his boxers and climbed under the green and silver blankets, relieved that his bed was both soft and warm, unlike the rest of the Slytherin quarters. A couple minutes later he heard Draco, Blaise, Moon, and Nott enter the room and get into bed. He rolled over and placed his head into the plush green pillow and was soon fast asleep. 

**A/N**Hope you enjoyed this poor excuse of a chapter. If you did (or didn't) let me know by **R/R**ing. So until next time... 


	8. What's a Soder?

**If Things Were Different: The Sorcerer's Stone **

Chapter Eight: What's a Soder? 

Summary:What if Harry left the Dursley's behind? What if he grew up far from Privet Drive?What if he wasn't a Gryffindor? What if he had different friends? What if he wasn't the golden boy that they wanted him to be? AU first year. NOT slash. R/R 

**A/N** Once again I would like to apologize for the long delay. Two of my good friends recently were involved in a car crash and one of them passed away, needless to say, I didn't feel up to writing much. However, I'm back with a new chapter to water your thirst... hope you like it. **Thanks to:**

_Melissa- Another update. probably just as short and hopefully just as sweet. _

Devonny Rose - Haha... your Weasley-table-dancing-comment did come out a little wrong didn't it. Here's the next chapter, its not too exciting... but just wait for the next chapter, that's when the Americanized, Slytherin Harry really kicks in. Mwhahaha! 

Byproduct of Evil - Here's the next chapter, sorry about the wait. 

Mystical Witch - Hope this chapter is long enought to temporarily hold you. 

SlytherinDamian - I was hoping Fred and George would be a little funny.... and no, they won't be like Ron, God forbid I make anyone else as unfair as Ron. You must of missed Crabbe and Goyle in the sorting, they show up a little more in this chapter. I know i made a lot of Slytherins and that too will be lightly explained in this ch. As for the Harry / Audrey, obviously not right now due to their age, but it is quite a possibility in the future. Hope this ch. answers some of your questions.... sorry to say it is once again a slow chapter. 

PheonixMan - Glad to see someone picked up on the Bloody Baron comment. However, can't tell u too much about it right now, it might not even be significant until the sequal comes around. 

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of this, except a bit of the plot and/or new characters. Also, I may use some descriptions/quotes from the book. Don't sue. 

***** 

Draco Maloy surprised himself on September 2nd by waking up quite early, shortly after sunrise. He decided to blame his early rise on the nervous knot, set deep in his stomach. After several minutes he shrugged off the silky green and silver blanket which he was wrapped up in and slowly sat up on his bed, absent-mindedly running his fingers through his unusually messy, white-blonde hair. 

As he moved to stand up he heard something. Scribbiling. _Thats strange._ He thought to himself. Surly he was the only one of his roommates to be up so unnatually early. Slowly and cautiously (like any smart Slytherin) Draco stood up and pulled back the curtains around his four-poster bed. 

He was quite surprised to see Harry's black, blue streaked, messy haired head bent over his small black book, scribbiling furiously... pausing...scratching something out... then going back to scribbiling something else down. 

_I wonder what he's writing._ Draco thought to himself. Surly it wasn't a journal? _No. What's the point of scratchting out things you write in a journal?_ The ever reasoning Draco thought. Then an idea struck him. 

Slowly he made his way over to where Harry was sitting, making next to no sound as he walked. Ever so slowly he began leaning over Harry's shoulder. 

Slowly. 

Slowly. 

He had just another inch to lean and he would be able to read what Harry was writing. 

Suddenly, with a loud SNAP, the small book was closed and Harry was twisting around, grabbing Draco by his forearms and pinning him roughly against the floor. 

"The next time you want to see what I'm doing, you should make a little less noise." Harry whisperd in Draco's ear, in a more warining tone of voice than threatening. Then Harry stood up and tossed the book into one of his trunk's compartments, then proceeded to grab a key out his jean pocket and lock his trunk. 

"Sorry... I was just, well, curious." Malfoy apologized as he walked over to his trunk. Harry shrugged, taking off the plain white shirt he had been wearing and replacing it with a tight-fitting black shirt with the words "Led Zeppelin" printed on it in bold, white letters. 

Malfoy opened up his trunk and grabbed a change of clothes and a pair of robes. He then turned to Harry and asked, "Do you want to shower first, or can I?" 

"You can go ahead, dude. I already took a shower earlier." Harry shrugged, tossing his blue and black hair which Malfoy realized was still a little wet. 

"Alright." 

******* 

A few hours later Harry, Draco (once again attempting to avoid the girl named Pansy), Blaise and Audrey made their way (after several wrong turns and a moving staircase or two) into the Great Hall for breakfest, where Harry found out just how much of a celeberty he was... 

"There he is." 

"Where?" 

"By the blondie." 

"Oh, next to the pale, black haired girl." 

"Yeah, he's the boy with black and blue hair." 

"Did you see his scar, its wicked!" 

"Can't beleive he's a Slytherin." 

"Reckon he's You-Know-Who's heir?" 

"Wouldn't put it past him, he's a Slytherin, afterall." 

Whispers such as these followed Harry constantly. It soon came to a point that he wanted to curse anyone who looked at him. He couldn't of course... not because he wasn't allowed to, but because he hadn't had time to practice any of the jinxes he had read up on yet. 

He ended up just throwing death glares at anyone whom he saw looking at him. Draco and Blaise soon grasped the concept and began glaring at anyone they saw looking at Harry. Audrey, however, found Harry's prediciment quite amusing and didn't pretend to hide her amusment. 

Soon breakfest was almost over and the first year Slytherin's received their time tables. They had Defense Against the Dark Arts with Ravenclaws first. This cheered Harry up a little as he realized that he would be having a class with Terry. Even if they were in different houses, he still wanted to remain freinds. 

The first year Slytherin students left the great hall in search of the Defense classroom. Draco and Harry led the way, followed by The Dimmwits (The nickname Harry quickly gave to Crabbe and Goyle) who agreed with everything that Draco said.(he was complaining that Hogwarts didn't teach Dark Arts). Kevin Moon and Cliff Nott were walking next to The Dimmwits, whispering to eachother and cracking the occasional smirk. Pansy Parkinson, Millicent Bulstrode, and a blonde girl who Harry couldn't place a name on were huddled together giggiling, glancing every now and then at Harry or Draco. Finally, Audrey and Blaise brought up the back of the large group. 

Judging from the sorting Harry reckoned that the Slytherin first year group was a bit larger than normal this year. He asked Malfoy what he thought as they came to the DADA room. 

"Yeah, well, every year ususally has a dominating house. I think it has something to do with what wizard sign the year was born under, you know, kinda like the Chinese calender. I think the sign we were born in was the Year of the Serpent. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure, and that would explain why our year has the most Slytherins, obvioulsy." 

Harry thought about this as he made his way into the DADA room (which contained a strong smell of garlic) and took a seat between Terry and Draco. He decided Draco's theory made since, afterall, he reckoned stuff like birth signs and whatnot had a little more pull in the magical world. 

He had just gotten his penci- err - quill and parchement out when a side door to the room opened up and a small man with a purple turpin, whom Harry recognized as Professor Quirrell, nervously made his way into the classroom. 

As he began calling roll Harry once again was flooded in a great feeling of dislike for the young professor. Harry was caught by surprise, however, when Quirrell called Harry's name and their eyes met for a split second. Harry's scar instantly burst out in excrutiating pain. It was gone almost as soon as it came, but Harry was positive he hadn't imagined it. 

The rest of the class went without incident as a stuttering Quirrell gave a speech on what they would be covering over the course of the year. Harry thought that there was definatley something fishy about Quirrell but he didn't bother going to his friends with the matter. 

As it turned out DADA seemed to be the only class that could be viewed as a joke. Proffesor McGonagall's Transfiguration class turned out to be quite difficult, of course it didn't help that she was the strictest teacher in school. 

In their first Transfiguration lesson McGonagall gave them several pages of complicated notes on theory before handing out a match which she requested be made into a needle. No student in their class was able to make much difference to their matches, however, Draco's became a little pointy and Harry managed to make his gain a slight silverish tint. 

History of Magic, taught by Professor Binns, a ghost, was easily the most boring class Harry had ever sat through. It wasn't long before Harry, Draco, and Blaise opted against jotting down notes on Emeric the Evil and Uric the Oddball. Instead the three Slytherins took up jotting down rude comments about Ron Weasley or dirty jokes (usually having something to do with witches on broomsticks) on a piece of parchment which they passed back and forth, all right under Binns nose. 

Harry took a liking to Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher. Harry found Binns to be quite funny (he toppled off his pile of books the first time he reached Harry's name on the roll call), not to mention he was easily sidetracked to telling the class random stories about his old school days. 

Then there was Herbology, taught by the earthy Professor Sprout, for which the Slytherins headed down to the greenhouses three times a week to learn uses for a wide variety of magical plants and sink they're hands deep into the dirt as they learned to care for said plants. 

****** 

Finally Friday rolled around and Harry and his friends made their way into the Great Hall. They had finally discoverd the quickest route from their common room to the Great Hall and were celebrating with some butterbeers that Draco's mother had sent him. 

"I'll have to let you guys try some soda one of these days." Harry said, taking a swig of his butterbeer as he took a look at his schedual to see what classes they had today. 

"Mmm. I had one of those once. Quite good if you ask me." Blaise mutterd in his cold voice 

"What's a soder?" Draco asked, confused, as he took a large bite of the pancakes he had piled up on his plate. 

"Soda, not soder. They're a type of muggle drink, got some in my trunk as a matter of a fact." Harry said, remembering how he had stocked up on all kinds of muggle junk food while he had been back in the U.S. He rememberd how the checkout lady at the Wal-Mart had looked at him like he was crazy when he had bought ten cases of soft drinks along with several frozen pizzas and more chocalate bars than an army could eat. 

"I might try one." Malfoy was quite skeptical of anything muggle. When Harry had first hung up some posters of some of his favorite bands back in the dorm he accidently found Draco prodding them with his wand one morning, wondering why they weren't moving. "Anyway, we best get on down to Potions." 

"Alright, that's cool. Just let me finish this up." And with on last swig Harry finished up his butterbeer and grabbed his book bag and they started off towards the dungeons. 

I had originally planned to put the potions class and first flying lesson in this chapter, but it didn't work out that way. Sorry. Nonetheless, please **R/R**. Thanks. 


	9. James?

**If Things Were Different: The Sorcerer's Stone **

Chapter Nine: James? 

Summary:What if Harry left the Dursley's behind? What if he grew up far from Privet Drive?What if he wasn't a Gryffindor? What if he had different friends? What if he wasn't the golden boy that they wanted him to be? AU first year. NOT slash. R/R 

**A/N**Here's this chapter, I'll try to get another one in before the week is over. **Thanks to:**

_SlytherinDamian: Im glad that the chapter answered your question... I'm glad you continue to be lost in my poor excuse of a HP universe. lol. Yes, I agree, snakes are much better than monkeys. _

Fallen Dragon: Your wish is my command. 

Irish Rover: If you can't wait to read more, then stop reading this and get on with the chapter! lol. 

Mystical Witch: Hope my potions class lives up to you expectations... let me know what you think 

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of this, except a bit of the plot and/or new characters. Also, I may use some descriptions/quotes from the book. Don't sue. 

***** 

Harry let out a small groan as he walked into the Potions corridor. Why did they have to have the class with the big headed Gryffindors? 

Ron Weasley stood flanked by Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan at the entrance to the Potions classroom, laughing at Neville Longbottom (The boy who had lost his toad on the train) as he picked up his books up off the ground. 

"So, Weasel, you decided that you'd fuck with your own kind, instead of us Slytherins, aye?" Harry said as Ron kicked one of Neville's books across the corridor. "Of course, Longbottom here is probably a bit easier than us, isn't he?" 

"Keep your slimy face out of this, Potter." Seamus defended Ron, before turning back to taunt Neville, "What's the matter Neville? Can't even defend yourself? Sorting Hat probably made a mistake with you. Don't see how you got in Gryffindor." 

"Perhaps you'd like to be on the receving end, Weasel?" Harry then reached over and knocked Ron's books out of his hands and smirked as they crashed to the floor. 

Ron's face went red with anger and embarassment and he lifted a finger and pointed it at Harry. "You slimy Slytherin trash, you'll pay for this!" He cried and raised his fist and began charging towards Harry. 

Harry calmly side-stepped and Ron went running straight into the corridor wall, giving himself a bloody nose. When they realized that their friend would most likley require some help Dean and Seamus turned from Longbottom and headed towards Harry. 

In a blink of an eye Harry drew his wand and hit both of the boys with the leg-locker curse and stepped back as they both went toppling helplessly to the floor. 

"You guys are going to get in so much trouble! Magic in the corridors is strictly forbidden, not to mention fighting! Just wait until Snape gets here." A bushy haired Gryffindor was looking accusingly back and forth between Harry and the three defeated Gryffindors on the floor, quickly receiting all the rules they had broken. "I wouldn't be surprised if you were all suspended. Honestly, fighting in your first week!" 

"Shove it, Granger." Harry mutterd to the know-it-all girl he recognized as Hermione Granger, before he turned back to his friends. 

"You handled that nicely. Although, I found it rather amusing watching the Gryffindorks teasing one of their own." Malfoy said with a smirk on his face as he patted Harry on the back. 

Just then Professor Snape walked into the corridor and stopped in mid-step as he saw the three Gryffindors lying helplessly on the ground while Longbottom finished picking up his books. 

"What is going on here?" 

"These Gryffindors tried to jump us Professor, honestly. Luckily Harry stopped them." Draco said in a very innocent voice. 

"I see. Fifteen points from Gryffindor for provoking Mr. Potter." Harry turned to Draco and smirked, until Snape continued. "Five points from Slytherin, Potter, for use of magic in the corridors." 

All the Slytherins were instantly taken back in surprise, they had never heard of Snape deducting points from a Slytherin. As Harry followed the rest of the class in behind Snape he was not feeling surprised, but instead, he felt a bit confused. Why had Snape seemingly stopped liking him ever since their trip to Diagon Alley? 

Harry shrugged the thoughts off as he sat down in a seat next to Draco and began getting out parchment and a quill. 

After he had finished calling roll Snape looked up at the class with his cold, black eyes. 

"Your are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion making," he began in his quiet voice, keeping the classs silent without an effort. "As there is no foolish wand waving here, many of you will hardly believe it is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep throught the human veins, bewitching the mind, ensaring the senses..." He paused and glanced around the room, "In fact, I don't expect some of you will make it through the year." He looked dircetly at Neville Longbottom as he said this, before continuing, "I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death -- if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach." 

Harry let a smirk cross his face. Snape may have been being an asshole to him latley, but he still had to give him his props -- he sure knew who to scare the hell out of a class. 

"Did I say something funny Potter?" Snape asked. 

_Yep, he's definatly gone all asshole on me. _ Harry thought, before answering, "No, sir." 

"Well then, Potter, perhaps the following question will humor you. Tell me, what would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?" 

Harry thought about the question, trying to ignore Granger, who was waving her hand around like a madman, trying to gain Snape's attention. 

Then it clicked, he had read about it over the summer while he was flipping through his _Magical Drafts and Potions _ book. This particular potion's name had intrigued him, and he was quite anxious to attempt to brew... 

"The Draught of Living Death, a very effective and strong sleeping potion." Snape was caught by surprise, he had obviously not expected Harry to answer his question. 

"Good to see at least someone opened their text before coming to Hogwarts, five points to Slytherin." Harry smiled, he had won back the points he had just lost. Snape then turned to Ron Weasley, after all, he couldn't go through a first lesson without embarassing somebody. 

"Tell me Weasley, where would youl look if I told you to find me a bezoar?" Hermione's hand once again shot into the air and began waving around, Snape once again ignored her. As Snape turned to face Weasley, and away from the Slytherins, Harry and Draco pointed their fingers at Ron and smirked in satisfaction. He was clearly stumped. 

"I don't know, sir." 

"Maybe you should have taken a leaf out of Potter's book Weasley, and actually opened a book." 

Ron then mumbled something under his breath, which obviously was not ment for foriegn ears. But somehow the phrase drifted across the room and Harry heard it quite clearly. 

"Yeah, try to be like Potter, so I can practice on taking his place as dark lord when he's gone. No thanks." 

"What was that Weasley?" Snape asked in a questioning voice, but it was clear to Harry that he too, had heard the comment. 

"I said, 'Yes sir, I should have.'" 

"Five points from Gryffindor for lying to a Professor, Weasley. And if I hear another comment like that one come out of your mouth, I'll see to it that you spend a month in detention." 

Weasley's mouth was opening and closing like a grounded fish, he thought no one had heard him. 

"And for your information, Mr. Weasley, a bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most posions.... Well? Why aren't you all copying that down?" 

Things didn't improve for the Gryffindor's after that. Hermione got told off, twice, for answering questions when not called upon, then Neville Longbottom's potion blew up and Ron was blamed for it (costing Gryffindor house another five points). 

All in all, the Slytherin's left their first potions class in quite a good mood (seeing Gryffindor's making idiots of themselves will do that for you.) As Harry, Draco and Blaise made their way up to the Great Hall they came across an obstacle. 

The overly-large man whom had guided the boats across the lake on their first night was blocking the entire corridor. He seemed to be collecting some sort of slime off the ceiling. 

"Err, excuse me Mr. ...." Harry began but stopped when he realized he couldn't remember the man's name. 

"Oi! Sorry about that James. Just collecting some Roctoplast-Slime for me garden." 

"James?" Harry asked confused, that had been his father's name. 

"Oh, sorry about that 'Arry, just look so much like ya dad. Here, let me get outa your way." The large man stepped aside and Draco and Blaise started to walk on by, but Harry didn't move. 

"You knew my parents, Mr..." 

"Me name's 'Agrid. Yeah, I knew your parents, two of finest people I ever did know..." His eyes glazed over slightly and started to tear up as he obviously became lost in memories from the past. He reached up and brushed one of the tears that had escaped off of his hairy face and looked down at Harry. 

"Tell ye what. One of these days when you ain't busy, why don't you come down to me cabin and I can tell you 'bout them." 

Inside Harry was jumping with joy, he didn't know anything about his parents, except that Voldemort that had killed them. Of course Harry didn't let any of his emotions sink through to his face and he simply answered, "Yeah, that would be good." 

With that he joined Draco and Blaise and made his way out of the dungeons. 

**** 

The next day was Slytherin's first flying lesson, with Gryffindors. As Harry, Draco, Blaise and Audrey made their way out onto the grounds (followed closely, of course, by The Dimmwits, Crabbe and Goyle), Harry expressed his frustraion. 

"Just what I need, to make a fool of myself in front of Weasley and know-it-all-Granger." 

"Don't worry about it, I know the Weasel is going on about how good he is on a broom, but its probably all talk.... I, of course, might make you look like a fool. Afterall, its not every wizard that can escape a muggle helicopter on a pitifull Cleansweep Seven." 

As Draco made this comment all his friends (aside from The Dimmwits) all made sounds of complaint. They had all heard Malfoy's very elaborate, and obviously made-up, story of how he had narrowly escaped an army muggle helicopter. 

"Not again." Harry moaned as, much to Draco's amusement, he began telling the untrue story again, The Dimmwits hanging on to every word which came out of his mouth. 

To the change the subject, Audrey piped up, "What's the deal with that stupid Remembrall of Neville's?" 

"Yeah, what an idiot." Harry agreed. 

"What do you say he loses it before the week is up?" Blaise joked in his quiet, unemotional voice. 

Draco, who realized he wasn't getting any attention from his more-intellingent friends joined the conversation. "Yeah, I bet it would make a good practice Snitch." They all laughed as they arrived at the Quidditch Pitch and made their way over to the lines of broomsticks. 

Before long the Gryffindors showed up, followed by Madam Hooch, their teacher. 

"What are you waiting for, everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up." Harry broom which looked slightly better for the wear than some of the others, Draco and Audrey picked the brooms on either side of him. 

"Stick out you right hand over your broom," called Madam Hooch, "and say 'UP'" 

"UP!" everyone shouted. Harry's broom was one of the few brooms which actually came to him on the first try. It took Draco three trys to get his up, while the poor Neville Longbottom boy's broom didn't even flip over on the ground, like Granger's had. 

Once Madam Hooch had shown them the correct way to mount their brooms (Draco had been doing it wrong) she called out, "Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard. Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet and then come back down by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle -- three -- two --" 

The ever nervous and jumpy Neville kicked off early. "Come back, boy!" The professor shouted. But he didn't. He shot up like a cork, ten feet, twenty feet -- thirty --. Then, suddenly, he lost his grip and came sliding down sideawsys of his broom and --. 

CRACK -- Neville was laying facedown in the grass, his arm twisted at an odd angle. 

Madam Hooch rushed over to him. "Broken wrist, come on boy -- its alright, just a quick visit to the infirmary will fix you up." She then turned to the class, "None of you is to move while I'm gone. If you so much as hover and inch you'll be out of Hogwarts before you can say 'Quidditch.'" 

As soon as she was gone Ron and Seamus burst out in laughter. 

"Did you see his face!" 

"Yeah, he ought to get transferred to Hufflepuff, the retard." 

"Shut up." Harry commanded. He had been teased far to much in his younger days to see and innocent boy like Neville made fun of. 

"Stick ou of our buisness, Potter." Seamus spat before turning back to laugh again with Ron. 

"Look!" Ron called in delight, "There's the blokes Rememberall that his gran sent him." 

"Hand it over, Weasel." 

"If you want it Potter, come and get it." Ron grabbed the glittering ball and mounted his broom, taking off and hovering near the top of a tree. "Maybe I'll leave it up here." 

"Ron! Please come down, Gryffindor's already lost enough points!" Hermione Granger, the Gryffindor geek called up. 

Harry grabbed his broom and mounted it, kicking off hard against the ground. He quickly rose through the air, the wind rushed through his unruly hair, his robes whipped around him. Then, all of a sudden, Harry realized he was flying, and, in some odd way, it felt _right_, like he was meant for it. 

He heard screams and gasps from the girls below as he pulled his broom around and faced Ron. 

"Give it here, you little bitch, or I'll stun you!" Harry called, pulling his wand out of his robes. Weasley looked terrified, and Harry knew it was the right time. He leaned forward and shot straight at the red head, calling out a boils curse, which missed as he closed in on the Gryffindor. 

Ron only just dodged the curse and Harry, ducking just as Harry grazed by him. The Slytherins down on the ground were making quite a scene, stomping and chanting Harry's name as he turned around to face Ron again. 

Ron seemed to realized he was screwed if he didn't do something soon, so he threw the ball as hard as he could, high in the air and streaked back to the ground. 

As if in slow motion, Harry saw the ball fly through the air and begin to fall back to ground. He leaned forward and pointed his broom handle down. Wind was whistleing through his hair as he streaked towards a collision course with the ground. He was gaining on the ball, at just the right moment he reached out with his free hand and grabbed the ball, mere feet from the ground. He quickly switched the ball into the other hand, so it was holding both his wand and the ball, and pulled up as hard as he could with his know-free hand, toppoling gently to the ground. 

"HARRY POTTER!" 

Harry turned around, only one thought going through his mind, _Oh shit_. 


	10. Cheating Is Legal, In Slytherin

**If Things Were Different: The Sorcerer's Stone **

Chapter Ten: Cheating Is Legal, In Slytherin 

Summary:What if Harry left the Dursley's behind? What if he grew up far from Privet Drive?What if he wasn't a Gryffindor? What if he had different friends? What if he wasn't the golden boy that they wanted him to be? AU first year. NOT slash. R/R 

**A/N**Wow, I haven't updated in forever. I'm sorry. **Thanks to:**

SlytherinDamian: You are my most faithful and devoted reviewer. Thank you. I hope my long delay hasn't sent you into withdrawls. lol. 

Mystical Witch: Hope this chapter satisfies you. And no, they don't really need a seeker, but you'll see what happens 

Demented Chook: Nice name. I'm glad you like how I portray Ron. Its how I think he would be if he wasn't in the same house as Harry, not that he isn't a prick in the real books anyway. 

also thanks to: sabrina, BlackDiva, Layce74 for your reviews. 

All reviews are appreciated greatly. They're kinda like a drug, I believe all you other authors out there know what I'm talking about. Keep R/R everyone. Please. 

_. _

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of this, except a bit of the plot and/or new characters. Also, I may use some descriptions/quotes from the book. Don't sue. 

***** 

"Yes, Professor?" Harry asked, innocently looking up at Professor McGonagall as she towered over him in fury. 

"I...You...Flying...Absolutley outrageous!" The professor screamed. "Follow me, Mr. Potter! How dare you! Could have died!" Harry's heart sank faster than the Titanic, he would surley get expelled. 

"But Professor..." Pansy called out. 

"It wasn't his fault!" Another Slytherin voiced. 

"I'll have none of that, come on Potter." Harry figured he had better follow her to his doom, disobeying one professor's blatant orders in one day was enough. 

When they entered the castle they turned left in the entrance hall, which confused Harry. They were surely going to the headmaster's office, yet this corridior led down to the dungeons. 

When they finally came to a stop at a door near the potions classroom it dawned on Harry, she had led him to Snape's office. It made sense really, Harry thought, that his head of house would be the one to hand out his dreadful sentence. Professor McGonagall rapted sharply on the door several times until, with a great bang, it swung open to reveal Snape, an irritated snarl inmprinted on his face. 

"What do you want?" He asked rudley, eyeing the two people standing in his doorway. 

"May I have a quick word, Severus?" McGonagall responded in a demanding way, before pulling Snape aside. They stood just outside of Harry's hearing range for a moment and hastily whisperd back and forth. Finally, in a voice which Harry could hear, Snape told McGonagall she could leave, assuring her he would deal with Harry. 

When she had left Snape beckoned Harry into his office and pointed at a seat. Harry sat down and observed the professor's office, taking note of all the weird...things... pickled in glass jars on a shelves around the room. 

Snape took a seat behind his desk, across from Harry, and smirked at him. 

"I see you are much more like your father than I had thought, Mr. Potter." 

"What's that supposed to mean?" Harry questioned, preparing himself to defend his family. 

"He also found that it was his right to show off his skill with handaling a broom, always finding it necessary to harass others with less talent." 

Harry glared at his professor. Why did he have to be such an asshole sometimes. "I wasn't showing off... I was defending a helpless loser." 

"If you say so Mr. Potter, however, it is besides the point. Thanks to Professor McGonagall, it has come to my attention that there is an incredibly talented flyer in my house, you. 

"Now, I am going to give you a choice for your punishment. You may either serve one months worth of detentions, in which you will report to me twice a week for detention, or you may try out for, _and make_ the Slytherin Quidditch team." 

"And what if I don't make the team?" 

"Three months of detentions." 

Harry nodded and thought about it for a minute. Was it at all possible for him, a first year who had only flown a broomstick once, to make the quidditch team? Or was Snape just trying to trick him into three times as many detentions? Harry figured it was probably the second option, but it was worth the risk anyway. 

"So... when are tryouts?" Harry asked innocently. 

****** 

"So your telling me that you, a bloody first year, are getting a chance to play on the quidditch team!" Draco asked later, awestruck. 

"Well, I still have to try out next week." Harry replied, a smirk across his face. 

"That's just it! Try outs!" Blaise called tiumphantly, in an unsually loud voice, drawing looks from other students scatterd out around the common room. 

"What's that supposed to mean?" Draco asked, sending dirty looks at some of the students staring at the group, they quickly looked away. 

"Just think about, all try outs are next week right?" Harry nodded, wondering what his friend was getting at. "And the date for the tryouts can't be changed right, not even if someone gets hurt?." Harry nodded again. 

Blaise then stared at Harry for a moment, as if waiting for him to speak. "Well, are you a Slytherin or not?" 

"What's that supposed to mean?" Harry was getting more confused by the minute. 

"Look, there's only gonna be two people trying out for that seeker positon. You, and Terence Higgs, the current seeker. Now, what would happen if, by some odd twist of fate the day before tryouts Higgs has some 'freak' accident which prohibits him from flying?" 

"Then he's shit outta luck and I become the new seeker." Harry replied, revealing an evil smirk as Blaise's idea sank it. 

"Just wait till the Gryffindorks find out." Draco couldn't hold in his excitment as an actual smile broke across his face, "And imagine Weasley when he sees your not expelled." 

******** 

"Potter!" 

"It it true, then?" 

"Your the new..." 

"Slytherin seeker?" 

It was just after dinner and Harry was presently being cornered by the Weasley Twins. 

"Well... there's still tryouts." Harry replied, trying to hold back a smirk as he thought of his treacherous plan. 

"Bloody hell! Your Harry Potter, of course you'll make it!" 

"I can't wait till the first game, obviously." Fred smiled like a maniac, "Just think George, me and you playing in a friendly rivalry against the famous Harry Potter!" 

"Wait unitl Mum finds out!" 

"Wait until Ginny finds out!" 

"Wait until Charlie finds out!" 

"Uh.. guys?" 

"Sorry bout that Harry, just getting caught up in the moment. We're kinda..." 

"...Proud of you. We see great potential for a..." 

"...Troublemaker in you." 

"Uh, Greg, Forge.... Thanks, but I need to get going back to the common room about now." The twins once agiain looked elated at Harry's use of their nicknames, he was the only other person who ever rememberd to use said nicknames. 

"No problem, you'll need to start resting up, tryouts are in three days." Harry laughed in amusment, they were idiots... in a good way. 

Almost as soon as the twins had departed another Weasley showed up, this one far less welcome. He was flanked, as always, by Dean and Seamus. Almost instantly Draco and Blaise were by Harry's side, they must have spotted the trouble from accross the Great Hall, Crabbe and Goyle also arrived, flanking behind Malfoy. 

"Well, well, Potter. I suppose you're be saying goodbyes. Tell me, does the train arrive in the morning to take you away?" 

"Actually Ron, let me tell you a story, funny story really. It starts off like this, I didn't get expelled." Weasley's jaw dropped, almost to the floor. 

"Let me continue the strory Harry." Draco cut it, "The story ends like this, Harry Potter is the soon-to-be Slytherin Seeker." That did it, Ron's jaw was now, officialy, on the floor. 

After a moment he gatherd himself, "Well, Potter, I guess I was wrong. Your fame can buy you everything." 

"You know Ron, " Harry smirked glancing over his shoulder at his friends, and The Dimmwits, "I'd think you'd watch your mouth when your this out numbered." 

"You're right Potter, but I'll take you on anytime, one on one, tonight if you like. Wizards' duel. Wands, no contact. Ever heard of a wizards' duel before, Potter." Harry, who had read a bit about wizards' duels in one of the books he had purchased nodded. 

"Tonight it is then, in the trophy room. Seamus is my second, who's yours?" 

"Malfoy." 

******* 

"Ok, so here's how it goes. Ron's a Gryiffindor so he's probably not smart enough to rat on us, but he might, so we have to be careful... I'd say we rat on him, but this is your dignity at stake. As soon as Ron learns that you know a few good hexes, he'll probably play dirty. Expect at least Dean and Seamus to both jump in with him. I say we bring as many people as is safe. I say me, you, Blaise, and Audrey...." 

It was eleven o'clock and Draco was running things over for the billionth time. 

"Damn, Malfoy, we've talked about this. We already know all this crap. We play it safe, hide in the shadows until the Gryffindors show up. Blah, blah, blah. If its a trap we run, blah, blah, blah. Now give me another butterbeer." 

"Do you want to be ready, or not?" Draco asked accusingly, "You're representing Slytherin here, so if you lose, we all lose." 

"Whatever, man." 

"Leave him alone for a while Malfoy, for Merlin's sake I think you're making him nervous." Audrey piped up for Harry. 

"Im not nervous." Harry proclaimed in an annoyed voice. He then glanced around to make sure the common room was clear. When he was sure they were the only Slytherins still awake, he grabbed his wand and swept towards the exit. "Come on, lets do this." 

Four students made their way out into the hallway and out of the dungeons, manuvering their way through the moonlite corridors. At every turn Harry half expected to run into Filch or McGonagall, but by some stroke of luck they weren't caught. They finally made their way up a staircase and cautiously tiptoed into the trophy room. 

Harry and Malfoy slowly made their way to the center of the trophy room, while Blaise and Audrey sank back out of sight, in the shadows. The crystal trophy cases glittered in the moonlight and the cups, shields, and other various trophies and statues winked in the moonlight. It was surprisingly eeriy. The minutes swept by, and Harry drew his wand, half expecting the cowardly Gryffindors to have planned an ambush. 

"He's late." Draco stated warily. "Mabye they ratted on us." 

"No, their Gryffindors. They don't rat." This sentence had just ended when the Slytherins heard a noise from outside the room. It was Ron's voice. 

"Come on guys, lets go get set up before the slime balls get here. Remember Dean, you stay hidden unless we start losing." Dean must have nodded, becasue Harry heard no answer. The door handle started to turn, slowly, then suddenly stopped. 

"What if they ratted on us? It might be a set up." That was Seamus' voice. 

"He won't rat. He's too big-headed for that." Ron replied, and then the door swung open. Ron walked in confidently. His eyes must not have been adjusted to the light, for it was a good minute until he saw Harry and Draco. 

"Thought you were going to cheat did you, bringing an extra man?" Harry asked mockingly, giving not the slightest hint that he had two extra's hidden in the shadows. 

"Potter!" 

"Weasel. You're late." Harry could see Ron's face turn bright red, even in the poor light, as he realized that Harry had caught him attempting to cheat. 

"You know Harry, I think we should puhish the cheater." Draco smirked and the two Slytherins pointed their wands at Dean Thomas. Just then they were interupted by yet another voice. This one even more unwelcome. It came from the door closest to the Gryffindors. 

"Now, now, my sweet, sniff around. I think I heard some voices." It was Filch, speaking to his cat, Mrs. Norris. 

Horror struck, all the students looked around in shock. Harry quickly motioned to his friends and all the Slytherins quickly exited through the opposite door. Ron must have caught sight of Blaise and Audrey as they slipped through the door, for he started charging at Harry and yelled out, in a very loud vocie, "YOU CHEATER!" 

"Who's there? I'm gonna catch you!" It was Filch, Ron had alerted him. Harry, being the last Slytherin through the door, slammed it shut in Ron's face and cast a simple locking charm on it. 

The Slytherins didn't stand around to hear what happened to the Gryffindors, who now were trapped between a locked door and the caretaker. Harry led the way as the sprinted down the corridor, sticking to the shadows as much as possible, and taking random turns down side corridors and up flights of steps. 

"I think we lost him." Blaise piped, panting for breath as they came to a halt at a locked door. 

"I don't think he followed us, too preoccupied with the Gryffindors, not like they won't tell him about us as well." Draco mumbled. 

"Nevertheless, _Alohomora!_" Harry said quickly, pointing his wand at the locked door. The four Slytherins quickly entered the room and collapsed to the floor to catch their breath. "We need to get back to the common room, before they find out our beds are empty." 

"Holy Merlin! We need to get outta here, before _they_ find out dinner just burst through the door!" Draco exclaimed, pointing at a huge monstrous dog, with three heads. Which means three mouths to feed. Which means hundreds of sharp, yellow teeth. 

The beast was standing quite still, staring at the intruders with surprise, saliva leaking out of its tremendous jaws... all three of them. Harry groped for the doorknob -- between Filch and coming out as dog crap tommorow, he'd take Filch. 

Harry rushed out the door and slammed it behind him as he ran, nearly flew, back towards the Slytherin common room. They all collapsed, trembeling, into armchairs and sat around looking at eachother for quite some time, not sure what to say. 

"What the HELL was that? Why does Dumbledore have a bloody monster in the school?" Draco finally voiced everyone's thoughts. 

"You didn't see it then, did you?" Blaise spoke, in his spookily quite voice, "You didn't see what it was sitting on?" 

"The bloody floor as far as I'm concerned! I was paying a wee bit more attention to its headsss, if you catch my drift." Audrey stated, her voice still quivering. 

"It was standing on a trapdoor, you dunderheads." Blaise proclaimed, exasperated. 

"Then it was guarding something... But what?" Harry asked, standing up and heading to bed, giving the others something to think about it. He had a suspiscion to what it was though, and it had to do with one vault 713 being emptied at Gringotts Wizard Bank. 

With that in mind Harry couldn't get to sleep, so he ended up taking out his guitar and playing slow, calming tunes well into the night.... err.. morning. 

***** 

During Harry's first week at Hogwarts, he had discoverd that news and gossip travels faster than a Nimbus 2000 through the school's many corridors. Who's dating who, who's hating who, who's talking trash about who, and so on. 

For this reason, Harry wasn't the least bit surprised to hear some of the wild rumors at breakfest the next morning, most of which had something to do with him. The news that three Gyffindor first years had been caught in the middle of the night in the trophy room, claiming that Harry Potter was also roaming about, had spread through the school faster than a California wildfire. Not too mention that the older Gryffindors were a bit pissed off at said three Gryffindors, who had lost nearly 100 points for their house. 

Harry tried not to get too caught up in the wilder rumors, most of which seemed to have him sneaking out to meet with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named while "That Weasley Kid" chased after him in a heroic attempt to falter Harry's evil plans. 

No, Harry was too busy scheming with his friends to pay attention to these rumors. Afterall, they had just less than 24 hours to come up with a real evil plan to demobolize Terence Higgs in a "freak accident." 

As Harry and his freinds sat around the Slytherin common room suggesting ways in which Higgs could get temporairly disabled, Draco pointed something out. 

"You guys do realize that there are over 350 staircases in Hogwarts?" 

_Oh yes, I do love being a Slytherin. _Harry smirked, thinking to himself. 

****** 

And so it was that later that evening Marcus Flint approached Harry in the Slytherin common room. 

"Potter, can I have a word?" Harry glanced up from his Transfiguration essay. 

"Yeah?" 

"I just got back from the hospital wing. It seems Higgs fell down a flight of stairs earlier, he won't be able to fly for a good month or two." Flint gave Harry a look which quite clearly said that he had a pretty good idea that Harry was behind it. 

"How dreadful." Harry stated in mock sympathy. 

"Yes, and to think that tryouts are tommorow." 

"Oh no, I had nearly forgot! And now Higgs can't fly?" Flint nodded, a knowing smirk plasterd across his face. "Its so terrible, how accidents seem to happen at the wrong time." 

"Yes, Potter, _accidents_ do happen. Which is why I'd be careful if I were you. Seekers have known to experience terrible _accidents_ on the quidditch pitch." 

"So I'm the new seeker?" 

Flint nodded. "There are still tryouts tommorow, but they'll just be a formality." 

Harry smirked, "Well I better head off to bed then, and rest up." Harry began to make his way towards the boy's dorms when Flint called after him. 

"Potter!" Harry turned around. "You're shaping up to be a fine Slytherin." Harry nodded again and turned back around, a statisfied smirk making its way accross his face. 


	11. A Little Rough

**If Things Were Different: The Sorcerer's Stone **

Chapter Ten: A Little Rough 

Summary:What if Harry left the Dursley's behind? What if he grew up far from Privet Drive?What if he wasn't a Gryffindor? What if he had different friends? What if he wasn't the golden boy that they wanted him to be? AU first year. NOT slash. R/R 

**A/N**Wow, I haven't updated in forever. Im sorry. **Thanks to:**

_amora: thanks. I too like harry in Slytherin stories, which might be why im writing one. who knows. lol _

Aaron: Yeah, Im trying to make it more original and less like a direct translation of the books 

athenakitty: Hmm... yes, yes, and...yes! thanks for the review. keep it up 

SmacksKiller: Yeah, like I said, im trying to make this orginal... 

Silverite: thanks 

sab: glad you liked it, keep reviewing. 

jeangab057: I know. lol. thanks for the review 

SlytherinDamian: Hmm... maybe this will help you through the withdrawl stages... :) 

baby chaos: sorry, but giving harry a snake is way to predictable... maybe, way down the road he'll get one, in a sequal 

SnakeDynasty: thank you. 

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of this, except a bit of the plot and/or new characters. Also, I may use some descriptions/quotes from the book. Don't sue. 

"Bloody, friggin stupid, sadistic, bloody bastards!" 

Draco Malfoy raised one sophisticated eyebrow as, sweating and cursing, Harry Potter crashed down next to him on one of the sofas in the Slytherin common room. 

"Having some trouble there mate?" The blonde asked, amused, as the dark haired Slytherin began nursing a bruised elbow. 

"Bloody damn Flint!" Harry exclamied, wiping the sweat off of his brow. "You should have seen the tryouts! Formality my ass!" 

"So you didn't make the team?" Blaise asked, appearing out of some shadowy corner in the common room. 

"Oh no, I made it all right, but Flint made sure I didn't have too much fun. It all started out good and well..." 

Three Hours Earlier 

Harry Potter, The Boy-Who-Lived-and-Ran-Away, and self proclamied Prince of Slytherin, was ready for some Quidditch. And he had a right to be. Just the day before he had seen to it that his only competetion for the position of Seeker was hospitalized, and thus disqualified. Now all that was left was to attend tryouts, and Flint had already assured him that they would be nothing more than a fomality. 

Presently Harry was walking out of the changing rooms, clad only in a black t-shirt, with the words 'Led Zeppelin' printed on it, and a pair blue jeans. He didn't have any quidditch robes yet. In fact he didn't have any quidditch gear yet. 

Nevertheless, the proud Harry Potter made his way out on to the pitch, where he discovered Marcus Flint and the rest of the team waiting for him. 

Marcus was standing tall, his shoulders pushed back and his arms crossed over his chest, clad in black and green quidditch robes. He had a sadistic smirk across his face as Harry walked up to him. 

"Potter." 

"Flint." Harry responded staring up at the older and larger Captain. In fact, Harry noticed with a slight twinge of nervousness, everyone on the team was quite a bit larger than him, and at least three years older. However, Harry was not one to be intimidated. Instead he demanded, "How about some Quidditch gear?" 

"Ah, yes. Pucey, give the kid a broom." A stocky, brown haried Slytherin stepped out from behind Flint and produced broomstick. 

The broom was no work of art. It was missing quite a few twiggs, and the ones which weren't missing were bent this way and that. As Harry grabbed the broom from the older student he noticed that even the handle was a slightly crooked and curved to the left. 

"What about some gauntlets?" Harry asked, eyeing the dragonhide gloves which Flint and the rest of the team were wearing. Draco had infromed him the importance of having gauntlets while playing quidditch, as they protected your hands from stray bludgers, or the sharp wings of the Snitch. 

The Captain smirked, "Sorry, we have none to spare." Harry gave Marcus the evil eye and kicked off from the ground. 

"Then lets play!" The dark haried first year called down, as he rose higher into the air. 

As Harry was flying a couple warm up laps around the pitch, Flint turned towards his teamates and smirked. "Lets go give the firstie some hell!" 

The following hour and a half was one of the most exhausting of The Boy Who Lived's young life. 

Although the Slytherin beaters were no Weasley Twins, they still knew how to hit a bludger at a person. Harry quickly discovered this as he fell into a constant array of dives, pull-ups, spirals, and loops as he attempted to dodge the two bludgers, and even a couple well aimed swings from the Beaters' bats. At the same time the Chasers, who didn't have to worry about scoring, took to shooting themselves at Harry like some sort of muggle rocket. Even the Slytherin Keeper joined in, as he found it amusing to tosss the Quaffle at Harry with all his might. 

In short, the Quidditch team had some good ol' fashioned fun at Harry's expense. His left arm was struck twice by a bludger (and once by a bat), and he also discoverd that a quaffle in the back of the head is no fun experience. He managed to dodge the Chasers, but all the while he was also searching for the Snitch. 

Finally, just when Harry thought he could take no more (he was tempted to pull out his wand and shoot a few well aimed hexes), he saw the small golden cylindor, floating about lazily by the goalposts. 

With one last burst of effort he shot off towards the snitch and within moments had it grasped in his palm. He flinched as the sharp wings dug into his flesh, but he wouldn't let go of the golden globe as, fist raised in the air to show his prise, he lowered himself to the ground. 

When he hit the ground he sat down on the pitch and hung his head down in exahustion. Before long the rest of the team flew down grinning and stood around him. 

"Welcome to the team, firstie." Marcus smirked as he took the Snitch from Harry. When he saw Harry's cut up hands he rose one nostril in disgust and went on. "Maybe we can get you some equipment." 

"Sounds a little rough." Audrey laughed, plopping down in an armchair as Harry finished his tale. 

"Stupid bloody bastard. I hope he gets butt raped by Gryffindors tonight. I hate Flint!" Harry exclamied, still nusring his bruised arm. 

"So what do you wanna do? Prank him?" 

"Are you crazy? Just because Flint's an asshole dosen't mean I want to be kicked off the team." 

"He dosen't have to know it was you." Draco added. 

"I'm not gonna do it." 

"Wussy." 

"Whatever." 

"Well lets do something this evening, I can't just sit around all day." Draco complained. 

"I know. We could go see that Hagrid oaf, and he could tell you about your folks." Blaise suggested. 

"I don't know..." 

"Yeah, c'mon Harry. Let's go." Draco took interest, he had always wanted to know more about the Potter's history. Afterall, they were supposed to be his family's rival. 

"Alright, it's better than nothing." Harry gave in, standing up and stretching his aching muscles. 

"Well, I can't go. I'm not done with my homework." Aurdrey said, gathering together her books while the three boys made their way towards the door. 

Within a few minutes they were out on the grounds and making their way down towards the half-giant's tiny hut. When they reached the building Harry reached up and knocked on the wooden door. 

A barking dog was heard in the inside, along with some shuffling. After a moment the door swung open and there stood Hagrid, a dog leash wrapped tightly in his hand. At the end of the leash a slobering and excited blood hound bounced around in anticipation. Harry quickly decided that the despite the dog's looks, it was quite harmless, a bit like it's master. 

"Oi! 'Arry, didn't expect you. I see you brought some friends." 

"Yeah, this is Draco and Blaise. Care if we come in." 

"Oh, sorry 'bout that. C'mon in. Make yerselves at home." Hargrid said, stepping out of their way, as the three filed in. "So I suppose you'd be Lucious' son." Hagrid turned to Malfoy, eyeing him with distaste. Draco nodded. 

"You shouldn't judge people by their parents Hagrid." 

Hagrid looked down shamefully. "Too ture, too true. Me mum's...well... too true." He paused, obviously stopping himself from insulting his own mother. "Does anyone want a bit of tea?" He asked, ending the awkward silence and changing the subject. 

The three boys nodded, so Hagrid turned to his stove and put on a tea pot. "So Harry, how's school treating you so far. Heard you made the team, eh?" 

"It's pretty neat. Never knew the there would be so much to magic though. Flying is about the only thing which comes natural to me." 

"Of course it does. That was the only thing that came natural to James too. Well, I suppose pranks and girls came pretty natural to him too." Hagrid chuckled. 

"Really?" Harry asked, eager to hear more about his father. 

"Yeah, James was a wild one, he was. Every women's man an' every man's idol. That's what they said about. him." Hagrid poored the tea and handed it to the three Slytherins. 

"What about his mum, then." Blaise asked. 

"Well, Lily... She was a fiery red head. Had quite a temper, she did. And the way I remember it, she was the only one James couldn't charm. 'Course that all changed when they became Head Boy and Girl..." Hagrid stared off into space, getting lost in his thoughts. "Two of the finest people I ever did know, Lily an' James." 

"What's this." Draco asked, picking up a copy of 'The Daily Prophet.' "I didn't know someone broke into Gringotts." He scammed through the article. "Well, it looks like they weren't able to get anything, but it's a bit freaky. Don't ya think so Harry." Draco said tossing Harry the article. 

"Look, it happened on my birthday! That's the day I went. It says the vault had just been emptied that day." Harry thought back to the day he had gone to Diagon Alley with Snape. Snape had, in fact, emptied a highly secret vault... and if that three headed dog was in fact guarding the package, then what would stop dark wizards from inflitrating Hogwarts to get it? 

"Do you think it might of happened while you were there?" Blaise asked, pondering. 

"You lot need to stop troubling yourself with this nonsense." Hagrid spoke firmly, but it was obvious he knew something they didn't. "Why don't you run along to the castle and get some work done." 

**AN** sorry for the long day. sadly, I have a life which includes school, work, and other troublesome things which keep me away from my fics. I hope yo liked this chapter, despite its shortness.. the next chapter will be Halloween, and maybe some Quidditch. wahoo, fun! please **RR**. thanks. 


	12. It's His Fault

If Things Were Different: The Sorcerer's Stone Chapter Tweleve: It's His Fault Summary: What if Harry left the Dursley's behind? What if he grew up far from Privet Drive?What if he wasn't a Gryffindor? What if he had different friends? What if he wasn't the golden boy that they wanted him to be? AU first year. NOT slash. **R/R **

A/N: okay, I haven't updated in over a year.. Literally. Please forgive me. With the release of the HBP I have become re-inspired. Please enjoy the continuation of my story. And thank you, in advance, for **R/R **

"Snape said he'd have my neck if I mentioned it to anyone, so don't let it slip.. or else" 

"Or else what, 'The Prince' will have my neck?" Blaise mocked in an obviously unworried and humored - yet still dark and calm as always - voice. 

"This really could be something serious, after all, it did have a three-headed bitch guarding it." Draco chimed in. It was breakfast and Harry had just finished keying in his most trusted friends on the package he had witnessed Snape remove at Gringotts. 

"We don't know that's what the thing is guarding, you know. We're not Gryffindorks, no need to jump to rash conclusions." 

"Oh come on Audrey, someone broke into the most secure bank in the world and attempted to steal something from a vault that had been emptied _that day_. The same day me and Snape The Dickhead emptied a vault there, with him threatening me not to relay the information to anyone. And now, incidently, there is a monster three floors above our heads sitting atop a trap door. Don't tell me you can't add two and two together. I don't know about you, but I wanna find out what was in that package. Anything that's having dark wizards break into Gringotts to steal must either be very dangerous or extremely valuable." 

"Oi, ok. Keep it down though, Harry. We don't want any _Weasels_ listening in and getting any ideas." Blaise said, pointedly eyeing Ron Weasley who was standing suspciously near the Slytherin table, eyeing Harry with a look of confusion. 

"Hey Weasel-Wack! Fuck off." Draco called out. Ron sent them a nasty look and sauntered off towards the Gryffindor table. 

He had not been gone long enough for Harry to finish off his morning coffee (which Audrey had taken to scolding him for, insisting it would stunt his growth) when with a loud swoosh of noise, the owls swept in to deliver the morning mail. Harry paid no attention, seeing as he didn't know a wizarding soul outside of Hogwarts, he didn't expect any mail. 

Instead of peering for his owl, the dark haired boy was focusing on sending a heating charm down towards Flint's orange juice. Over the last week or so, Flint and the Quidditch team had continued to make the evening practices a living hell for Harry, insisting it would build his character and prepare him for the first match of the year. Fortunately, Flint had managed to scrounge up some gear for Harry, although he still was flying an old beat up school broom. To Harry's satisfaction, just then Flint took a large gulp from his goblet, only to spew the contents out all over the table. 

"Ugh, that shit was hot!" He exclaimed, and immediately began searching the faces of his friends, obviously suspecting one of them had pranked him. Harry concealed a smirk and averted his gaze, no use letting Flint have reason to suspect him. 

"Eh, what's this?" Audrey asked, pointing up in the air. Harry glanced up to see what she meant, only to see three brown school owls descending towards the Slytherin table, a long package tied to their feet. The group of owls was gaining attention around the Great Hall, students all around were pointing at the large package curiously. 

"Reckon it's heading this way?" Blaise questioned, although with his cool tone of voice, it sounded more like a statement. Indeed, seconds later Harry was quite surprised to see that the owls had landed in front of him, holding out their legs for him to untie the long package. 

"I bet I know what that is." Draco said, an expectant smirk flying across his face. 

Harry quickly grabbed a note off the front of the box and scammed over it quite quickly. 

_This was a pretty Galleon. Serve Slytherin well. _

S.S. 

"What's it say?" Audrey asked, flipping her dark hair out of her face as she reached for the note. Harry let her grab it as he curiously, yet quickly threw the box open. There was a resounding gasp all around Harry. One Hufflepuff, who was standing up to get a good look at what the package contained, called out loudly so the entire hall could here "Potter's got a Nimbus Two-Thousand!" 

And Indeed he did. Harry smirked. This would definitely give him an upper hand over the Gryffindor team come the first Quidditch match. He reached into the box and held the broom up in the air, not thinking twice of letting the entire hall get a good look at it. 

"Bloody brilliant, not too shabby." Blaise muttered. 

"Just as I thought." Draco said, a smug look on his face. 

It wasn't long before everyone trying to get a good look at his new piece of equipment got quite old to Harry. He sent a few death looks at some Ravenclaws across the hall who were standing up on the table in attempt to get a better view of his broom. "This is getting old, I'm gonna go stash this before class." Harry stood up and grabbed a hold of the broom and made a quick exit from the Great Hall, doing his best to ignore the blatant whispers and stares that followed him. 

As soon as he had exited the hall Harry was met with the only two desirable members of the Weasley family that he was yet to meet. 

"Gred, Forge. How do you do?" Harry asked, in a mock polite and aristocratic voice. 

"Ah, quite splendid my dear Mr. Potter." 

"And how is the delightful morning treating yourself." The Twins replied, in an equally fake polite voices. 

Harry let himself crack a smile. The two were hilarious even when they weren't trying too hard. He held up his broom in response to their question, adding "Not bad." 

"Oh yes, we saw that excellent piece..." 

"Of equipment being delivered, quite a..." 

"Shame really, seeing as it gives us Gryffindors yet..." 

"Another obstacle to overcome, adding to the fact..." 

"That we have yet to find a decent seeker for the team." Harry shook his head, it was beyond him how the two could finish each others' sentences so eloquently. 

"But your broom isn't what we're here to talk about Harry." 

"Although, by the looks of you, in a couple years 'your broom' will be all that.." 

"The female population will be talking about. In fact..." 

"Just to warn you in advance, I would recommend steering..." 

"Clear of our young sister. Quite a feisty one she is." Harry shook his head in amusement. He was just eleven years old, still far from the age when he would be worrying about girls. 

"I'll keep that in mind, then." Harry laughed. 

"Excellent. Now Harry, we would like to speak to you of..." 

"Some obvious signs that you are shaping up to be an extraordinary mischief maker." 

"Nowhere near as talented as ourselves, howerver there is potential..." 

"Speaking along those lines, excellent work this morning with Flint's drink." Harry raised an eyebrow, he didn't think anyone would have noticed. George, or Fred... he couldn't tell the difference, smiled. 

"Ahh yes Harry, we are always on the lookout for fellow mischief makers, and your little stunts have not gone unnoticed by us." 

"In fact, we know that association with you may make us unpopular amongst our fellow Lions, however..." 

"If you ever need any assistance, or just some company, in getting up to no good... well, you can always count on us. You make us proud Harry, young lad." 

Harry smiled and shook his head. Those two really were a handful. "Well, thanks guys, but I need to get going." 

"Of course you do, little Potter." 

"Yes, run off to your little firstie class Harry. See ya around then." 

After that Harry hurried on down to the Slytherin common room and stashed his broom. He wasn't stupid, and he was beginning to realize just how useful having friends in Gryffindor could become to him, and it looked as if Greg and Forge may be just the thing. 

Harry was shocked to realize that he had already been at school two months, yet it was obviously true. It was the day of October 31, better known as Halloween. Classes were already over for the day, and Harry was sitting in his room way down at the bottom of the dungeons, picking away at his guitar. So far the day hadn't been any different from any other day of the year, with the exception of the exquisitely decorated Great Hall. Classes that day had been just as boring as ever, the only thing out of the normal that had happened was that the prat Ron hand down something to upset the Granger girl during charms, and she had ran off crying the rest of the day. 

Not that Harry could really care of course, he had no sympathy for the no it all, although Ron's bullying did annoy him to no end. As Harry continued to play away on his guitar, which had quite a soothing effect on him, his mind began to wander away. 

It was Halloween, a day which had always troubled Harry. He had never liked Halloween, and for good reason. It was the day his parents were murdered. The day he had survived. The day he had been pawned off on his muggle 'relatives,' if you could even really call them his family (something which he still hadn't forgiven Dumbledore for). Deep inside Harry a fire began to burn, a fire of rage and contempt. At first it was direceted at the memory of Petunia, Dudley, and Vernon... And then the rage shifted to Dumbledore for letting him live with them. Couldn't he have just let Harry grown up with some friends of the family?...or maybe grow up on the castle grounds, be watched over by the faculty? 

Just as Harry was ready to storm out of the Slytherin common rooms and go find Dumbledore to tell him off, something clicked deep down in his brain. _It's His fault._ Harry's eyes flashed red as an incredible controlled fury built up inside him. _He's not done yet... I'm going to find him and I'm going to finish him. It's His fault._ Harry calmly set down his guitar and reached down in his pocket, withdrawing out his eleven inch holly and phoenix feather wand, running his long finger up and down it. "And you, my friend, are my connection." He muttered to himself. 

Just the door swung open. "Oi, Harry.. what are you doing. It's time for the feast, let's eat!" Draco called out from the doorway. 

"Right, coming." Harry said, all traces of the built up fury not evident in his calm voice, as he stood up and headed with his friends off toward the Great Hall. 

**A/N** Ok, so i've started back on this fic again. Hopefully I'll update soon. I know not much happened in this chapter, but at least i've started writing again. Please **R/R**


	13. Blood, Boogers, and Brains

**If Things Were Different: The Sorcerer's Stone **

**Chapter Thirteen: Blood, Boogers, and Brains**

**Summary:**What if Harry left the Dursley's behind? What if he grew up far from Privet Drive?What if he wasn't a Gryffindor? What if he had different friends? What if he wasn't the golden boy that they wanted him to be? AU first year. NOT slash. R/R

**A/N: **here you go. you may enjoy it.

Harry had never liked Halloween, no point in denying it. They never seemed to turn out right for him, and as he made his way toward the Great Hall with Draco and Blaise he wasn't too confident that this one would be any different.

Upon entering the Great Hall, Harry's mood lightened to an extent. The Hall - which was always a sight in itself without any additional work put into it - was elaborately decorated with Halloween pumpkins, flying bats, and floating candles, all topped off with the gold platters that had been absent sense the start of term feast. The set was topped off with bright orange table cloths which blended well with the students' black robes, and gave an overall eery, yet oddly cheerful, mood to the Great Hall.

"Come on, lets sit down towards the end. Pansy's in the middle and we should steer clear of her." Draco said, a look of disgust on his face as he attempted to evade his, for lack of a better word, stalker.

"Come on Draco, shouldn't you call her 'Pansy-Pumpkins?'"

"You're pushing it Potter, sit down." Harry and Blaise cracked up. Their friend was overly sensitive to being teased when it came to Pansy. They were some of the last ones seated in the Hall, and shortly after they had become comfortable the food appeared on the golden trays.

"Time to dig in!" Blaise muttered to himself, an eager look on his face as he skipped the main courses and headed straight for a pumpkin pie.

"Better eat you're veggies Zabini, wouldn't want to see your growth stunted." Harry joked, making fun of Audrey who had now taken to scolding everyone whose diet wasn't top notch. It really wasn't that annoying, Harry decided, just humorous. While he was pondering this, he reached across the table and helped himself to a baked potato.

However, Harry didn't have the opportunity to enjoy said potato before the doors to the hall burst open, only to reveal one of Harry's least favorite, and definitely least trusted, teachers. Yes, none other than Quivering Quirrell, also known as "The Babbling Garlic Man of Hogsmeade." Only now the man who usually couldn't hold a single students attention was the main focus of the entire Great Hall. Everyone was simply wondering "What the hell is he doing?" as he ran towards the Headmaster, a terrorized look fixed across his face.

Finally he made his way to Dumbledore, tripping and stumbling down on his knees as he reached the Headmaster. "Troll - in the dungeons - thought you ought to know."

Then he fainted.

Then the Hall erupted in chaos.

After emitting several 'bangs!' from his wand, Dumbledore was able to gain semi-attention of the students. You could tell he was in his element. "Prefects, lead you're Houses back to your common rooms.." He called out, adding "AT ONCE!" when everyone failed to jump into action.

"Hey guys, wait up." Harry grabbed hold of Blaise and Draco, catching Audrey's eye in the process and signaling for her to join them. "Ok guys, think about it. We want to know more about that thing on the 3rd floor, right?" They nodded, uneasy looks coming across their faces. "Well then, think about it. Everyone else is distracted with the dumb troll, so now would be an excellent time to investigate."

"Oh come on Harry, our Prefect would notice that four of his first years were absent in half a second." Audrey said, attempting to find fault in Harry's plan.

"That's where you come in.. distract him." Harry said, glancing down at the female member of their group. She opened her mouth to protest, but The Boy Who Lived and Disappeared (Only to Reappear) cut her off, "Oh come on, it won't be hard. Are you a witch or not?...now get going, our time is limited." With one last look of reluctance Audrey hurried off.

"Ok, lets hit this." Harry said, motioning to Blaise and Draco before ducking easily out of the Great Hall amongst the confusion.

They had not made it around the first corner in the corridor when they heard the Great Hall doors burst open. "Duck, come on now." Harry said, leaping behind a suit of armor, pulling his two friends with him. They scrunched down on the floor between the suit of armor and the wall just in time as...

"What's Snape doing?" Draco wondered aloud, releasing his breath after their greasy haired head of house went trotting past.

"I don't know, but he's heading towards the third floor by the looks of it. The only thing that's down this corridor is the staircases." The ever observant Blaise pointed out.

"We should detour, there's another set of stairs over by the bathrooms. They're the bloody moving ones, but we'll have to cope." Harry said, leaving the hiding place and, after a few paces, he cut of down a side corridor which led towards the first floor restrooms.

They had almost reached the girl's loo when Draco doubled up and held his nose. "Oi, what's so rank?"

Then they heard it, a very disgusting grunt and shuffling of large feet. "Sound's like Hagrid got sick." Blaise said, then turning up his nose he continued "Smells like it too."

"Look." Harry whispered, pulling his friends up close to the wall with him to evade the troll's gaze. Because there it was, just down the corridor from them, and what a disgusting sight it was. It was every bit of 12 feet tall with large dull grey eyes, hardly distinguishable from its thick coat of dull grey skin. If that wasn't enough to freak you out, it's long arms were also dragging a large spiked club behind it, which gave it an even more gruesome appearance.

"We should lock it in!" Draco exclaimed in a whisper as the troll turned and sauntered into the girls bathroom.

"Good idea." Harry said, and just as the troll entered the room the three boys hurried toward the door and slammed it shut, locking it in the process. They turned to hurry on towards the third floor, but not before a loud ear-splitting screech was emitted from behind the door.

"Don't tell me..."

"Granger! Son of a bitch, we got to save her." Harry said, a furious look across his face as they all realized their blunder. Blaise reached for the door reluctantly. "Wait, before we go in lets plan this a little. I read up on trolls a little over the summer, spells won't work on them. Draco, distract the thing.. Blaise, get Granger. I'll get the troll, I got an idea.." And with that they flung the door open.

To an outsiders' eye, chaos ensured. But to the three Slytherins, everything worked just as planned. When the door flew open the troll was startled, and slowly turned around. "Oi, pinhead, take this." Draco called out, tossing a roll of toilet paper at the thing's face. It grunted, and Draco reached for another roll.

Meanwhile, both Blaise and Harry had taken off at a run, both diving between the monster's legs without it being any the wiser. Blaise rolled on towards the shrieking Granger, grabbing hold of her and covering her mouth with his hand when he reached her. There was no need for them to catch the troll's attention, especially not sense the toilet-paper-tossing Draco was doing such an excellent job distracting it.

After Harry had dived between its legs he reached over and grabbed a hold of the troll's greasy shirt. Year's of fending for himself atop of weeks of Quidditch practice gave Harry both the strength and agility to hoist himself up on the troll's back. It didn't even notice, as it was too busy swatting at roll's of toilet paper. Harry climbed up on its shoulders, which finally caught the thing's attention and it reached up to swat at him, but it was too late for the grey monster. With well trained reflexives Harry dodged its hand and, in one quick motion, reached into his robes and extraced two long, sharp knives. In one more fast movement he shoved each knife up the troll's nostrils.

The trick was done. Blood, boogers, and brains spewed out of the troll's large nose, and it began to teeter about. Harry slid down off of it's back just in time, as the smelly creature went toppling to the ground.

Granger was still screeching, Blaise was still trying to shut her up, and Harry was still trying to clean up his knives when they arrived. The teachers, that is. McGonagall, Snape, and Quirrell.

Snape bent down over the troll for a second, only to raise up. "It's dead." He said, a look of.. was that satisfaction...across his face. Quirrell on the other hand looked almost, could it be, disappointed. McGonagall on the other hand, she was...

"Dead. Dead! Well, better it than you! You foolish, stupid, rash...what were you thinking!"

Yes, she was furious.

"Please, Professor. They were here to save me." Granger was the last person Harry ever expected to stick up for him, besides Ron perhaps. "I...I went looking for it myself. Thought I could handle it myself, I did. They must have seen me sneak out of the Great Hall and followed to help me out."

Harry didn't know what to say. He didn't know what to think. Was Granger actually... helping them? Even more surprisingly... was she really lying to a teacher, her own Head of House at that?

McGonagall didn't know what to say either, as her mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water. Finally she pulled herself together. "Very well then, Granger you were very foolish. For that I must take 15 points from Gryffindor. You three, on the other hand..." She turned towards the Slytherins, who were hardly containing their smirks, it wasn't everyday that you saw Granger lose points after all, "Not only did you fail to tell a teacher what Granger was up to, you also disobeyed strict orders from the Headmaster. And that's the least of it! Perhaps you didn't know, but I shall enlighten you on the fact, that trolls are an endangered magical creature! And you killed one! This should be reported to the Ministry at once, however..." She took a deep breath, "They do tend to meddle too much in our buisness as it is. I will have to settle with giving each of you a months worth of detentions. Also, 20 points must be taken from Slytherin."

Harry was furious. He held his head high and glared at McGonagall. "Each." She continued. Each! Harry couldn't believe it. She gave them each a month's worth of detention and took a whole 60 points from Slytherin! That would place them in dead last, even behind Hufflepuff. "Come on now." McGonagall swooped out of the room and Hermione and Quirrell followed quickly after her.

Snape hung back, motioning Harry, Blaise, and Draco to do the same.

"I am impressed." He said in an unemotional voice. "It usually takes at least three full grown wizards to do away with a troll, and yet you three did it without help. Unlike McGonagall, I am under the impression that we would be better off if all the troll's were eliminated from this world. And so, for ridding the world of one more nuisance, yet more importantly," he shot Harry a very pointed look here, "for helping to thrawt the...enemy.. I grant Slytherin 25 points a piece. Now make yourselves scarce before your classmates notice your absence."

With that the three of them headed back towards the Slytherin dorms, not considering continuing their initial goal of investigating the three-headed beast.

"You know Harry, I can't figure out if Snape loves you or hates you." Draco said, shaking his head as they began their descent towards the dungeons.

"I know, but..." Harry started, but he was cut off by Blaise.

"But did you hear Granger. I mean, she still owes us one for saving her... but did you hear her stick up for us." Blaise shook his head in disbelief, his eyes glazed over.

"I know, but..." Harry tried again.

"But Snape made up for the points we lost saving her. So Granger definitely owes us one for saving her."

"I know, but..."

"But did you hear her. It was almost like she _wanted_ to help us." Blaise said in awe.

"But, but, BUT! Would you guys get over it for a second and listen to what I have to say!" Harry had become quite annoyed at being cut off every time he tried to talk.

"Oh come on, Harry..."

"I said shut up, Draco!" Finally Harry seemed to have their attention, just as they reached the entrance to the Slytherin common rooms. Harry held out his hand so they didn't enter just yet. "Now listen up, did either of you see Snape's leg?" When neither friend replied Harry continued, "Well, it was a bloody fucking mess. Looks like he had an encounter with our three-headed furry friend. Just something to think about, you know." With that Harry turned to the slimy wall, called out "Blugslyth" and entered the Slytherin Common room as discretely as possible.

"Guys! Did you find anything out?" Audrey had been waiting for them by the door.

"Nope, just killed a troll and earned a future favor from a mudblood." Draco said, plopping down on a green comforter. Audrey raised an eyebrow and flipped her hair out of her face.

"Long story, we'll fill you in tomorrow. Did anyone notice we were gone?"

Audrey smirked. "Nope, I had to take some drastic measures though. Good thing I learned the Confusion Curse a few years earlier than I was supposed to." She said, nodding towards a sixth year prefect who was standing in the corner, a bewildered look in his face as he stood facing the wall singing "Ode To My Quidditch Love" quite loudly.

"I thought Harry said distract him, not Confund him." Blaise muttered, shaking his head.

"Well, that's my type of girl." Harry smirked. "G'night fellas."

**A/N:** thats all for now.. more when i write it.


	14. Of Quidditch and Reporters

1**If Things Were Different: The Sorcerer's Stone **

**Chapter Fourteen: Of Quidditch and Reporters**

**Summary:**What if Harry left the Dursley's behind? What if he grew up far from Privet Drive?What if he wasn't a Gryffindor? What if he had different friends? What if he wasn't the golden boy that they wanted him to be? AU first year. NOT slash. R/R

**A/N: **Sorry for the long delay, again. I'm in this crazy thing called college now, and its hard to find time to worry about this fic. Anyway, I'm trying to break away from the books little by little, but anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Over the next couple of weeks Harry discovered that the hellish quidditch practices were taking up more and more of his time. Flint was calling practices at all hours of the day, from sunrise to sunset the team was always "on call" for a practice, whether it was freezing cold and raining, as it commonly was (which was a shock to Harry, who had become used to the warm weather of the southern states), or if the sky was clear and the sun unusually bright. Flint demanded the practices were necessary if the Slytherin team wanted any chance to defeat the Gryffindors, who had finally found a new seeker in the form of Kevin Riley, a sixth year.

According to Flint, Riley was a tall, lanky kid who had always been a bit clumsy. "The dunderhead isn't too talented," the Slytherin captain claimed, "But he has long arms and a good eye, you'll have to keep a watch on him Potter."

Overall the practices weren't as grueling for Harry as they had been, due to the fact that the rest of the team had been working with different formations and sketchy tactics Flint was coming up with, instead of concentrating on getting Harry. Nevertheless the practices were still hard and time consuming for the first year, leaving him with little time to focus on his studies, much less to investigate the third floor any further.

With such a hectic schedule the time flew by, and on the morning of the first match Harry was quite surprised it had snuck up on him so fast. It was a bright and cold morning, not a bad day for Quidditch, Harry decided, but it wouldn't be bad if it were a little warmer.

"Come on Harry, lets go get some food in you before the match." Draco called out when Harry made it down to the common room. "Audrey and Blaise already headed out."

"I'm not that hungry."

"You think I care? Come on, you need to have your strength if you're gonna represent Slytherin."

The seeker decided against further protest and headed up to the Great Hall with his blonde friend, despite the large knot in his stomach. Breakfast smelled delicious as they entered, with smells of sausage, bacon, and pancakes wafting through the air.

They made their way over to the Slytherin table, passing by taunting Gryffindors on the way. Harry paid them no attention and sat down at the table, looking down at all the wonderful food in disgust. Nevertheless he piled some food on his plate and began to eat, only to discover he couldn't get down much more than some toast and a bite or two of eggs.

Harry was just getting up to head down to the locker room when Audrey stopped him. "Wait a minute Potter, I think we should do something about your hair."

"What do you mean?" He asked defensively, he subconsciously reached up and tousled his hair. "I like my hair."

"Course you do, but it looks like your representing Ravenclaw with all that blue in it. Here, let me fix it." With that she waved her wand over his head and muttered a spell. "Now, that's perfect."

"What'd you do to it?" Harry asked, trying to make out his reflection on an empty plate.

"I turned all the blue to green, now not only do you look like a Slytherin, but it also matches your eyes." Harry was slightly agitated, but he shrugged it off.

"I'm heading down to the pitch, you guys coming." Blaise stuffed one last mouthful of sausage in his mouth and stood up with Draco and Audrey as they followed Harry out of the Great Hall. On the way out they passed the Ravenclaw table where Terry wished him luck, which made Harry a little guilty for not spending more time with his Ravenclaw friend.

When they reached the quidditch pitch his friends wished him luck and headed off to the already filling stands, and Harry made his way to the Slytherin dressing room. The rest of the team was already getting dressed, so Harry quickly threw on his gear and sat down to listen to Flint.

"All right guys, you know the drill. Now lets get out there and stomp those Gryffindorks."

It wasn't much of a speech, but it was all that was said. The team then stood up and headed out onto the field where they were met with a mixture of loud cheers from the Slytherin section and some of the Ravenclaws, along with boos from the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs.

At center field Madame Hooch called for a fair game, forced Flint and Wood to shake hands, and then blew her whistle to start the game.

As soon as the whistle sounded Harry pushed off hard into the air and headed up above the match. Only a few seconds into the game Harry was forced to dodge two speeding bludgers, flying much faster than what the Slytherin team had ever sent at him. He looked down only to see the Weasley twins laughing at him.

"Sorry Potter, got to do what we got to do." Fred called, before racing off after one of the stray bludgers. Harry shook his head and held in a laugh, he hadn't expected them to apologize for going after him, the match was at stack after all.

Before long the twins stopped aiming at Harry however, since there were more important matters going on below him. The match quickly turned out to be a gruesome affair, as the two rivals began throwing everything they had at each other. It quickly became obvious that the Gryffindor team was in fact more talented than the Slytherins as they racked up four scores before the Slytherin team managed their first goal.

"Oh, its turning into a nasty game out there," Lee Jordan, a Gryffindor, was commenting the game from the stands. "Looks like the Slytherin team has taken to playing dirty, no surprises there."

"JORDAN!" McGonagall was seated next to the Weasley Twins' friend, attempting to keep his commentary unbiased.

"Sorry professor. Back to the game, Gryffindor in possession – Angelina Johnson has the quaffle, passes to Spinnet, she's headed toward the goal – watch that bludger! She passes the ball – Oh! Intercepted by Flint, he's headed to the goal, he shoots – BLOCKED! Gryffindors have it again, Johnson in possession – OH! That has to be a foul! Adam Pucey just performed an illegal move, you can't hit another chaser from behind like that!"

Madame Hooch blew her whistle and Pucey was charged with the foul, he had elbowed Angelina in the head as she was flying down field. The Gryffindors made their bonus shot, making the score 50 to 10. That didn't stop the Slytherins' aggressive and dirty tactics however. Over the next few minutes Harry's team managed to score two more times, but they weren't able to draw any closer as the Gryffindors scored three more times, twice as a result of foul shots, making the score 80 to 30.

Meanwhile, Harry was 50 feet above everyone else in search of the Golden Snitch. He was becoming quite unhappy with the Gryffindor seeker, who had taken to following Harry's every move and cutting him off at any chance he had.

Then he saw it, the Snitch was hovering over by the goal posts, just under Wood's feet. Unfortunately Kevin Riley saw it as well, and the two both turned towards the golden ball and shot off after it.

"The Snitch! It's been spotted ladies and gentlemen, and the seekers are off after it. They're neck and neck, looks like Potter's Nimbus doesn't have too much speed over Riley's Cleansweep. Come on Riley! This is the first match ever for both seekers, but we'll see if Potter can contend with his elders. They're headed down towards the ground now, where's the Snitch?"

Harry knew where the ball was however, it was just a matter of getting to it before his opponent. The Snitch had taken off away from the goal posts when they shot after it, and it was now darting along the pitch, only feet above the ground. Riley saw it too, and as they headed after it the two began bumping into each other, each trying to knock the other out of their way. Riley had a better advantage at this, due to his size, but now Harry was noticing just how much more control his broom had over his rival's.

Harry reached the ground quicker than he expected and had to pull up suddenly, which cost him some speed and allowed the Gryffindor seeker to pull half a broom in front of him. Now, with his long arms Riley was sure to get the Snitch if Harry didn't do something, so he did.

The young Slytherin pointed the nose of his broom at the tail of the Gryffindor's broom and leaned forward slightly to gain more speed. He nudged the tail of the broom, and at such a speed that the Gryffindor was sent spiraling off course and into the ground. The whistle blew and Harry was called with a foul, but he didn't care. He'd stopped the Gryffindor from getting the Snitch.

Unforunatley he lost site of the golden ball as well, so as the uninjured, yet ruffled Riley got back on his broom and the Gryffindors took (and made) their bonus shot Harry shot back above the pitch, amidst defying boos from the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff section, and loud laughter from the Slytherins. He began searching for the Snitch once again, as Lee Jordan declared. "That's it folks, any doubt I had about Potter has been confirmed. He's officially a dirty Slytherin."

"Jordan!"

"Sorry professor, back to the game. Gryffindor makes the shot, making the score an uneven 100 to 30. Lets seal this win Gryffindors!"

Harry stopped paying attention to the commentary however, as his broom had just made a giant lurch and shudder. He frowned and gripped the broom tighter, but to no avail as the broom began going crazy, rocking back and forth and lurching this way and that. It was as if the Nimbus had become a mechanical bull that was designed to throw you off.

The broom continued to act crazy, zigzagging every which way and paying no attention to Harry's command. It continued to do so for what seemed like eternity before the crowd finally began to notice. When they did notice Harry was not met with the laughter and catcalls he expected, instead the stand had become eerily silent. It was obvious the broom was malfunctioning, something which only dark magic could cause.

With another jerk Harry was all but thrown from the broom, in fact he was thrown from it. Luckily for him he was able to keep one hand on the broom as he dangled nearly 100 feet over the ground. He didn't know what to do, in fact he was considering letting go, after all a few of the players from both teams were now hovering beneath him, intending to catch him if he fell.

And then, quite suddenly, it stopped. Confused and frightened Harry swung back onto the broom, which was now behaving quite normally.

"I don't know what's going on with Potter's broom." Lee Jordan called out, voicing the thoughts of the crowd. "If I were him I'd look into suing the Nimbus company, he could have been killed just now. Nevertheless, play is once again underway as Potter gets control of the broom. Gryffindor in possession – what's that! How'd Slytherin get 40 more points!" The crowd turned their heads to the scoreboard and was shocked to see that the score now stood at 100 to 70, apparently Flint was busy scoring goals while Harry was almost dying.

Unsurprisingly this led to loud boos and protests both on the pitch and in the stands by Gryffindor supporters. Nothing could be done however, since Madame Hooch had never blown her whistle and stopped play during Harry's peril.

Harry took advantage of the confusion and continued to search for the Snitch, and to his surprise he spotted it within seconds, hovering innocently in the middle of the field. Riley was busy protesting to Madame Hooch and didn't notice it, in fact Harry was quite sure he was the only one who had spotted it despite its obvious position. He cautiously made his way towards it, making it appear as if he was just hovering around, so that Riley wouldn't notice. The plan worked, and he slowly moved in on the golden globe.

Slowly.

Slowly.

He reached out and grabbed the ball quite easily and held it high in the air. It was almost an entire minute before Madame Hooch noticed and blew her whistle to end the game, shocking not only the crowd but also a confused Gryffindor team.

As Harry descended to the ground he was engulfed by the rest of his team, and then soon half of the stands, all wanting to clap him on the back and congratulate him.

Later that night in the Slytherin common room the celebration party was beginning to die down, and the Boy-Who-Lived was sitting next to the fire with Draco and Blaise, sipping on a butterbeer.

"I still don't see why your broom went crazy like that." Draco said, bewildered.

"I'm telling you, it must have been cursed. Nothing but dark magic can make a broom act like that. I knew it'd only be a matter of time before someone wanted to get the Great Harry Potter." Blaise said in his usual silent voice as he stared into the fire.

"But then why would they just stop. If they wanted me dead you'd think they would have kept at it for a couple more minutes."

"Exactly what I was thinking." Draco pitched in.

"Well, someone must have stopped them. You held on for long enough, somebody must have realized what was going on and done a counter curse right? I mean, they must have been doing it right under Dumbledore's nose, my guess is that he saw what was going on."

"I don't know, maybe. I guess you guys really might have to start the Potter Protection Agency after all." Harry said, laughing a little to hide his discomfort and worry.

"Hey, I thought you might want to read this." Audrey said, plopping down across from Harry on a green couch, and tossing him what appeared to be a newspaper. "They're selling those down in the Great Hall."

"The Hogwarts Weekly? I didn't know we had a school paper." Harry said, reading the title of the paper.

"Well its never been very popular until now. The Ravenclaws put it out, so the articles are usually rather dry and above everyone's head. That is, until now – now they are having trouble printing enough copies for everyone. Go ahead, read the cover article." Audrey said, and Harry picked the paper up with little interest.

That is, until he got a good look at the front page. There were several large moving pictures of him, including one of him struggling to hold onto his broom with one hand, dangling 100 feet over the quidditch match. He glanced down at the article.

_The Mysterious Harry Potter: Friend or Foe_

_The arrival of Harry Potter at Hogwarts has been highly anticipated ever since his defeat of You-Know-Who ten years ago, on that dreadful Halloween night. However, it was with great shock that the wizarding world discovered young Mr. Potter may not be everything we hoped for._

_Judging by the history books and countless retelling of Harry's story, I'm sure that I am not the only one who expected The Boy Who Lived to be a great noble hero. But apparently the stories may have deceived us, as Mr. Potter doesn't seem to be what we expected him to be. It was a shock to us all when Harry was sorted into Slytherin, a house with a fishy past, notorious for producing dark wizards including He Who Must Not Be Named. That is only where the doubts about Harry begin, however._

_Ever since Harry's arrival at Hogwarts, mysterious happenings have began, including the student ban of the mysterious third floor corridor, the arrival (and mysterious death) of the troll on Halloween, not to mention the behavior of Mr. Potter's broom today – which appeared to be the work of dark arts. Has Harry Potter's arrival at Hogwarts brought a dark cloud over the school? According to Divination Professor Trelawney, this is possible. "Dark forces are at work this year at Hogwarts, I sense a dark presence within the school." Is it possible that young Potter is the culprit?_

_That seems to be one thought going through the halls. Ron Weasley, a classmate and rival of Mr. Potter declares, "Nobody knows how he survived You Know Who, or what Potter did when he went to America, do they? I say Potter and his gang are up to no good. He has assaulted me in the halls for no reason, not to mention he conned himself onto the Slytherin team. I think we all need to keep a watch on him." Thanks to Ron for his input, but we also spoke with Terence Higgs, a housemate of Potter's who also has his doubts about Harry. According to Higgs, "I don't like him, he's a dirty slime ball." Eloquently put Terence. _

_It is important to say that everyone does not feel distrustful of Harry Potter, Terry Boot and Neville Longbottom, of Ravenclaw and Gryffindor respectively, both claimed Harry was not in fact an evil mastermind. Personally, I don't know if Harry is a friend or a foe to the side of light, but I'll be sure to keep you posted on any further happenings surrounding the life of the mysterious Boy Who Lived._

_- Kelsey Bulprit, your roving reporter_

"Well, at least your getting some publicity." Blaise joked after reading the article.

"Just what I need, for everyone to be talking about how I'm the next Dark Lord, you'd think it was enough that I was almost killed today in quidditch. Now half the school is going to want to crucify me in front of the Ministry of Magic.

"We ought to teach that Kelsey Bulprit a lesson, she's just a third year." Draco stated, always quick to seek revenge.

"Nah, that would just give them more to talk about." Harry shrugged off the idea and headed off to bed, it'd been a long day.


End file.
